1971-12-09
Page: 16
MUZAFFARABAD, Kashmir, Dec. 8—In this capital of the Pakistani‐controlled part of Kashmir, government leaders expressed enthusiasm today over the war with India, called it a jihad, or holy war, and said it would not stop until all of Kashmir was free of Indian dominatian.
“Every child from 15 up down to men of my age are pressing on our government to train them it least in basic military principles so they could shed their blood for the motherland,” said Dr. Salam‐ud‐din Niaz, Minister for Defense, Law Parliamentary Affairs and Rehabilitation in the government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
A number of officials interviewed with the minister in his office expressed enthusiastic agreement.
In the hospital nearby, to which the minister conducted his guests to visit the war wounded, a 15‐year‐old boy, Mir. Alam, lay sadly, clutching his abdomen. He said he was hit four days ago by strafing from an Indian plane while he was plowing his family's field In the village of Lippa: Two 20‐year‐old men in the same ward said they had also been wounded by the plane.
“Tell the world that these innocent civilians were wounded by Indians, the country that preached nonaggression,” said Dr. Niaz.
The colonel who runs the combined military civilian hospital in this mountain capital of 25,000 people said that one more civilian casualty was in the hospital and the 24 other wounded in its wards were soldiers.
The colonel said he had three wards set aside for war wounded and more available when needed. He said his supplies Were adequate and many persons' had volunteered to donate blood for transfusions.
Kashmir is the area where the Pakistani Army says it is making its maximum effort in the west, perhaps to offset the difficult situation in its eastern region.
But on a drive here from Rawalpindi, a drive that paralleled the front, line at distances of about 20 miles, little open military activity was encountered on the principal highway. The atmosphere was relaxed and predominantly civilian.
The only fighting observed was between Rawalpindi and the nearby capital of Islamabad when ground batteries and Pakistani fighter planes responded to a swoop aver Islamabad airport by an Indian jet. No damage was reported to either side despite heavy firing.
People along the highway took cover alongside their houses or under trees. One man addressed to a foreigner angry imprecations against India, shook his fist against the threat from the sky and promised to fight to his last drop of blood. “Pakistan will win,” he said, “by Allah's will.”
A military ambulance was encountered near the road leading toward Poonch, where the Pakistani Army says it is scoring a major advance near the town, which is in Indian-controlled Kashmir. An attendant said that casualties had been light and mostly caused by shells and mines, not close contact with the Indians. He said he had seen no enemy wounded.
The attendant carried only a pistol, in his hip pocket. But between him and the driver lay a loaded Sten submachine gun. The ambulance was marked with the standard red cross on white ground, but since almost every vehicle in Pakistan has been coated with mud for camouflage, the emblem was barely visible.
No firing, even of far‐off artillery, was heard through the clear mountain air and nothing echoed through the steep, narrow gorges except the roar of the rushing Jhelum River at the bottom. Some signal men laying field ‐ communication lines looked incongruous in the sylvan scene.
In front of the government offices here, a trench had been gouged out of the lovely garden, and workmen were busy filling bags with sand to be placed around the building.
“It's nothing,” said Dr. Niaz, “but we have to do this.”