CALCUTTA, India, Saturday, Dec. 4—The forces of India's eastern command are poised for an all‐out drive into East Pakistan against the Pakistani troops there.

“We will take necessary action; we will take whatever action an army is supposed to take,” a military source said here last night after the Government had reported that Pakistani planes from West Pakistan had attacked Indian airfields in the west and that the Pakistanis were shelling Indian units on the western border.

Pakistan insisted that India had attacked first with ground troops all along the western border. “That's a bloody lie!” said the Indian military source. “I give you my word there was no attack.”

However, Indian units here in the east, supported by tanks and artillery, have been jabbing and probing at the Pakistani troops in East Pakistan for several weeks.

The Indian operation was designed to help the Bengali insurgents oust the West Pakistani troops who have occupied East Pakistan since March, when they moved to crush the Bengali autonomy movement.

“As far as I'm concerned, it's a war,” said the Indian military source. “We now have to take certain steps, which will be apparent in the morning.”

“We will set the machine in motion,” another military source said angrily. “We will let loose the hounds of war.”

Many diplomatic observers believe that the main war will be fought on the eastern front. Their view is that with the reported Pakistani attack in the west, the Indians will push directly into East Pakistan to accomplish their objective —the creation of a friendly, independent East Pakistan that will take back the nearly 10 million Bengali refugees who India says have fled to her soil during the eight months of strife and who pose a threat to her stability.

The observers believe that Pakistan, by her military actions in the west, may be trying to bring about international intervention as a means of freezing the situation and holding on, however tenuously, to East Pakistan.

“The United Nations may be able to stop the fighting in the west,” said a Western diplomat, “but no one on this side is going to stop to listen to the U.N. bray. They're going to push right in.”

Even without the United Nations intervention, independent observers think the major action may be in the east.

A key objective is the city of Jessore and its cantonment, which are only about 20 mites from the border with West Bengal State, in India.

It was clear last night that, at least to officers of the eastern command, the Pakistani move came as a surprise. “We were not expecting war so soon,” a military source said.

Calcutta, the overcrowded capital of West Bengal that sits less than 50 miles from the border, was calm last night. Diplomats attended their usual parties, the brightly lit Park Street nightclubs were humming and the movie theaters were full. The diplomatic mission of the insurgent government—which calls itself Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation) —was quiet, its iron gate locked.

The only sign of crisis was a blackout at the airport, where large sandbag fortifications have been erected in the last week to protect military aircraft. No seats were being booked on domestic flights in anticipation of the suspension of all flights.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed a political rally in Calcutta before the crisis broke, speaking from 5 P.M. to nearly 6. The Pakistani air attacks were said to have begun shortly after 5:30 P.M. Mrs. Gandhi was not told the news until after her speech.

“Pakistan is talking about war,” she told a crowd of about 500,000 on the Brigade Parade Ground. “We do not want to fight. I hope they will not follow up their talk, but if they do we are prepared.”

The Prime Minister flew back to New Delhi after her speech. Shortly after midnight, in a nationwide radio broadcast, she told her people that Pakistan had launched a “full‐scale war” on India and she declared state of national emergency.