Islamabad: Shielded from the outer world and no longer open to foreign correspondents, East Pakistan has become the object of conflicting news and speculation. Last week, the focus was on the danger of a direct confrontation between Pakistan and India - although headlines in the censored Pakistani press about India's interference in Bangla Desh affairs appeared aimed partly at justifying the military action taken against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League.

Islamabad commentators failed to see any political vindication for New Delhi's pro-Bangla stance and saw India's attitude as an attempt to sharpen the crisis and stir secessionist elements against the martial law regime. They deplored, of course, the way the army operated, but found no less lamentable the fact that India simply ignored the situation in which President Yahya Khan had found himself.

Meanwhile, the martial law authorities in Dacca claimed to have full control over East Pakistan. But they said "miscreants" in certain areas were trying to terrorise peaceful citizens, preventing their return to normal activities. Indian local authorities in the border region adjoining Sylhet were accused of having channelled arms, ammunition and money into areas with large Hindu populations.

One of the reasons for bringing into play East Pakistan's Hindu minority of 11 million may be to discredit them indirectly as India's fifth column - thus shoring up what West Pakistan regards as a vital link in keeping the two wings together: an all-Pakistani Moslem front against Hindu-dominated India. The task of looking around for friends continued, meanwhile, and if India was at the bottom of the list, the Soviet Union seemed not far behind.

President Podgorny, in a message to Yahya, said events in the eastern wing had caused great concern in the Soviet Union. Replied an angry Yahya: "The Awami League leaders had no mandate from the people of Pakistan to dismember the country, and yet they encouraged anti- national elements materially supported by an actively hostile neighbour to destroy the unity of Pakistan." The president called upon the Soviet Union to use its undeniable influence with India to prevent it from meddling in Pakistan's internal affairs, concluding: "No country, including the Soviet Union, can allow anti- national and unpatriotic elements to proceed to destroy it or to countenance subversion." The indignant Pakistan Times added: "The people who eliminated countless human beings in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia and have no conscience and compunction in plundering other nations' territories are urging us not to put out flames of treason which were about to consign our homeland to ashes."

But there is still China and Premier Chou En-lai, who had assured Yahya on March 3 - Pakistan Day -that the People's Republic would always support Pakistan in its struggle to safeguard national independence. Intoned the Pakistan Times: "On this dark horizon, does light shine from Peking?" The paper forgot to explain, however, how a country which preaches atheism could help rebuild a bridge between two wings of a state based on what the army is trying to restore: Islamic brotherhood.