JULLUNDER BASE CAMP, Derababa Nanak, India, Dec. 10 — The Derababa Nanak bridge, a strategic railway trestle that was captured by Indian troops earlier this week, was quiet today. Lime green parrots screeched in the trees and Indian soldiers bathed in the Rawi River beneath the bridge, two miles inside West Pakistan.

The Indians took the heavily fortified bridge in a brief surprise attack, capturing scores of weapons and prisoners while reportedly losing only one man killed. Since then, the Indian officers have been wondering what has happened to the Pakistanis, why they gave up the bridge so easily, and why they have not counterattacked.

The question what has happened to the Pakistanis is being asked by many Indians along the western frontier since the initial Pakistani air raids on Indian airfields a week ago today. The Pakistanis have launched only one large ground attack, in Chhamb, in southwestern Kashmir. Here in the Punjab, where they are expected to mount their major offensive, they have conducted only small probing actions, Indian officers say, and their artillery barrages are getting smaller each day.

We have been surprised at the failure of the enemy to attack harder,” said the Indian brigadier who commanded the assault on the bridge.

The brigadier, who cannot be identified by name for security reasons, is a slender man with an exquisitely barbered mustache, a swagger stick and a British accent.

Political Crises Cited

“They are not fighting like the Paks of 1965,” the brigadier continued, referring to the 22‐day war between India and Pakistan. “They seem to be unsure of themselves and lack aggressiveness.”

As he spoke, five mortar rounds suddenly burst in an adjacent sugar cane field. “Pak infiltrators,” the brigadier said with a wave of his hand.

The brigadier and other Indian officers on the western front feel that the failure of the Pakistanis to follow up on their initial attacks may be attributable to the political crisis in Pakistan caused by the troubles in East Pakistan.

In the view of the major general commanding the Indian division on the Punjab frontier, “The only reason I can think of for their behavior is that they are having some kind of political trouble because of Bangla Desh.” Bangla Desh, or Bengal Nation, is what the insurgents there call East Pakistan.

On the Indian side, morale seems high. At every village and town on the highways running toward the frontier swarms of children, students and old men come running out to greet jeeps and army trucks with packets of oranges, bananas and cigarettes for the troops. In some towns there are signs, “Free meal and tea for our jawens.” “Jawan” is the Indian equivalent of G.I.

At night, to enforce the blackout, village militiamen armed with long bamboo cattle prods guard the roads, beating the drivers of cars who dare to turn on their lights.

At the Derababa Nanak bridge the regimental commander received a bullet wound in his right leg but has refused to leave the field to have the bullet taken out. “The Pak bullets are so weak that they could not even go all the way through my leg,” he said, showing the ugly red swelling where the bullet had lodged.

Derababa Nanak means home of Baba Nanak, the sixteenth‐century founder of the Sikhs—the Indian warrior sect—and many of the colonel's troops are Sikhs. “They will not give up this place easily,” the colonel said with pride.

The two‐mile deep Indian salient into Pakistan at Derababa Nanak is one of four Indian positions inside Pakistan in this sector of the Punjab frontier. According to Indian officers, the Pakistanis have none inside India in the same area.

Asked if the Indians plan to advance farther into Pakistan, the brigadier replied: “If I did not know I could tell you.”