To the Editor:

The July 3 letter “U.S. Aid to Pakistan” by Hamid Jalal, press counselor of the Pakistan Mission to the U.N., is yet another futile and self‐defeating attempt by the West Pakistani colonial regime to confuse the real issue in Bangla Desh.

The West Pakistani official says that the electoral mandate received by the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujib in the December 1970 elections was for provincial autonomy and not for secession. But he conveniently forgets that the Awami League had never wanted secession and that the basis of the autonomy program of the Awami League was the six‐point formula that had clearly envisaged defense and foreign affairs as federal subjects.

It is absurd to say that the majority in a democracy would want to secede. The Bengalis had not wanted independence in the beginning because they expected that they would be able to decide their future within a democratic framework in the federation of Pakistan. It was only after the West Pakistani Army started its campaign of genocide against the Bengalis that they declared the independence of Bangla Desh.

Mr. Jalal refers to the Awami League leaders as extremists but completely forgets that it was Mr. Bhutto, the West Pakistani leader, who had threatened to boycott the National Assembly if it met on March 3 as scheduled by General Yahya after repeated demands for its meeting by Sheikh Mujib.

The Pakistani Government (now clearly representing West Pakistan only) is not only at war with the people of Bangla Desh (who constituted the majority of the population of East Pakistan) but it is guilty of the crime of genocide against unarmed, peaceful and helpless men, women and children. The excuse put forward by Mr. Jalal that his Government was only trying “to put down a mutiny and an armed attempt at the dismemberment of Pakistan” is pathetically hollow and does not carry General Yahya anywhere.

Mr. Jalal has spoken of the needs of a larger part of Pakistan's population. Who represents the people of Bangla Desh? Is it Sheikh Mujib, who won 167 out of 169 parliamentary seats in the December elections, or is it General Yahya, who is in power only by virtue of force?

Finally, Mr. Jalal has argued that foreign aid would help and induce the return of the seven million refugees to their homes. On the contrary, any amount of aid to the West Pakistani Government would be used to buy more arms and to continue the campaign of genocide. The possibility of the return of the refugees under the present circumstances is at best wishful thinking.

Mahmood Ali
New York Representative
Bangla Desh Government
New York, July 21, 1971