HYDERABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 12—The clamor for independence in West Pakistan's province of Sind has been muted almost completely, apparently as a result of the failure of the secessionist movement in East Pakistan.
Painted wall slogans here calling for Sind nationalism and processions chanting “Jiay Sind!” or “Long Live Sind!” have disappeared since May.
The 4,000 students at Hyderabad's University of Sind, formerly among the most militant the Sindhi separatists, now seem more interested in passing examinations than any thing else.
“There's no doubt,” a faculty member said, “that people have been impressed by the failure of the Bengali separatists to bring about the secession of East Pakistan. If the Bengalis had succeeded, you, would have seen Sindhis fighting too.”
Eight or nine militant separatist students remain imprisoned here as a result of their agitation in. May. The main leader of the Sind autonomy movement, G. M. Syed, is under house arrest. The detentions do not seem a matter of major concern to people of this important Sindhi city, which is sweltering in desert heat.
Nevertheless, Sind remains a problem for Pakistan's central Government at Islamabad.
The province includes Pakistan's largest city and principle port, Karachi.
Sindhis Feel Exploited
While Sind is clearly part of West Pakistan, it has its own language, Sindhi, and its own cultural traditions. In common with the Bengalis of East Pakistan, many Sindhis feel they are economically and politically exploited by the Punjabis. East and, West Pakistan are separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
Many Sindhi politicians believe that separatist militancy has been blunted here partly because West Pakistan's leading politician, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is himself a Sindhi.
“If Bhutto makes it,” one politician said, “we shall have Sindhi at the seat of national power and no need for separatism.”
But if President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan keeps Mr. Bhutto from assuming office, “or even throws him in jail with his Bengali counterpart, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, then you can expect trouble in Sind, too,” he said.
In Pakistan's first election, last Dec. 7, Mr. Bhutto and his left‐wing Pakistan People's party won most of the seats allotted to West Pakistan in the new National Assembly. Sheik Mujib and his Awami League won nearly all the seats assigned to East Pakistan.
Bitter rivalry between the East and West Pakistani leaders and their inability to agree on the sharing of power was one factor leading President Yahya to postpone the convening of the Assembly and to the army's subsequent move to crush the movement for political autonomy in East Pakistan.
Some of his party aides now say privately that their leader is facing a crisis in his conversations with the President that could lead to imprisonment.
“If something like that hap pens,” one politician said, “the army had better be ready to occupy Sind Province as well as East Pakistan. And they may find that expensive and dangerous.”