NEW DELHI, Dec. 11—The Indian Army captured five more towns in East Pakistan and took at least 3,000 Pakistani soldiers prisoner in the last 24 hours, Indian spokesmen said today.

Indian officials were vague and guarded, however, in discussing the movements of their troop units that are closest to the East Pakistani capital, Dacca. It was thus difficult to judge what progress they had made.

[The first of three British planes landed in Calcutta Sunday carrying the first 100 foreigners to be evacuated from Dacca, The United Press reported.]

It seemed possible that an attack on Dacca will be delayed until India can mass more soldiers and equipment on the best routes leading to the city.

If the latest Indian reports are accurate, only about six significant towns in East Pakistan are still in Pakistani hands. They are Dacca, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Barisal.

Main Seaport Is Isolated

Dinajpur and Rangpur in the far northwestern salient of East Pakistan are cut off by Indian forces and so is Chittagong, the major seaport.

India and Pakistan began fighting a general war on Dec. 3—a conflict that grew out of a rebellion by East Pakistani citizens' against the military government dominated by West Pakistanis.

Most of the western front has been relatively quiet since the war began, and remained so today. However, large Indian and Pakistani forces were still locked for the fifth day in what seemed to be a bloody but inconclusive battle at Chhamb, about five miles inside Indian territory in southern Kashmir.

The main theater of war is East Pakistan, where India now recognizes the government formed by rebel leaders as the newly independent nation of Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation).

Indian spokesmen said that Jamalpur and Mymensingh in the northern part of East Pakistan fell today and that 581 Pakistani soldiers, led by a lieutenant colonel; had surrendered at Jamalpur, Mymensingh is about 70 miles north of Dacca.

Indian forces also captured Hilli near the West Bengal border and Gaibanda, about 45 miles east of Hilli near the Brahmaputra River, spokesmen said. Maijdi in the southeast was also captured.

Interest focused on Dacca, which lies like the bead in a gunsight notch above the junction of two rivers, the Padma—a branch of the Ganges—and the Meghna.

Yesterday Indian spokesmen said their forces had leapfrogged the Meghna by landing more than 600 troops to the west of it by helicopter, at Bhairab Bazar, and then reinforcing the bridgehead by river craft.

No Major River Barrier

Bhairab Bazar is about 40 miles northeast of Dacca. While there are many streams, there is no major river obstruction between there and the capital.

But no solid news of what this Indian unit was doing was available today. In New Delhi, the official spokesman said that the Indians had come under fire from enemy troops and had been “probing” out from their bridgehead. He could only shrug when newsmen sought more information.

In Calcutta, one Indian spokesman said that the force had “made good progress west of the Maghna” but he refused to elaborate.

One informed Indian source said that the unit was “still quite far from Dacca.” Presumably if the Indians had had a military success to report, they would have done so.

Speculation about a final attack on Dacca was difficult for foreign observers.

The marshy terrain of East Pakistan, laced by streams, poses many obstacles for military operations.

The Indian forces in East Pakistan greatly outnumber the Pakistani defenders. However, the Indian forces are spread out widely over the eastern province. Now that almost all the major towns have fallen, they can presumably begin to concentrate toward Dacca, but this could take time.

Also, if the Indians are to make a coordinated attack on the city from several directions, they will have to take more ground and leapfrog more rivers. For instance, Indian forces have already occupied Daudkandi and Chandpur southeast of Dacca but are still east of the Meghna River there.

This stream is so wide that it could be bridged only by huge pontoon bridges, or alternatively large and heavy equipment such as artillery would have to be ferried across.

West of Dacca, Indian forces had not yet reached Goalundo Ghat on the Padma River, and this stream could be a formidable barrier. Due north of Dacca, Indian forces were still 70 or more miles away.

Bhairab Bazar to the northeast, where Indian troops have already crossed the Meghna, is the closest Indian position within the Padma‐Meghna junction.

There is no way to know whether the Indians will make their main attack from this point—or whether they would attack on a single front in that manner.

A map of East Pakistan pub lished by the Pakistani Govern inent shows no road running from Bhairab Bazar toward Dacca, although a railroad runs from there to the road at Narsingdi, about 25 miles northeast of Dacca.

Another critical question is how many Pakistani troops have been able to retreat into the Dacca triangle and are able to fight for the city's defense. Pakistan had about 70,000 men in the East at the start of the war, but a number of units are isolated and cut off.

The various troop surrenders announced or claimed by Indian officials in the last 24 hours totaled about 3,000, but India has made public no over‐all total since the war began, despite requests for such information.

India has shown considerable military resourcefulness so far and the helicopter assault at Bhairab Bazar came as a surpris.

Indian officers make clear they would rather see the war in the East end with a mass Pakistani surrender than with a bloody last‐ditch battle for Dacca.

The Indian Army Chief of Staff, Gen. S. H. F. J. Manekshaw, today made his third successive appeal to Pakistani forces to lay down their arms.

The latest appeal, which was broadcast by the All‐India Radio, said that “resistance was senseless” and would cause unnecessary military deaths and threaten the lives of civilians from West Pakistan resident in the East.

On the western front, the main forces of the two armies were still not engaged, and the important Punjab border saw little more than probing action.

The battle in southern Kashmir continued. The clash there began Tuesday when what India describes as a Pakistani force of more than division strength, with many tanks, advanced and took Chhamb.

A Seesaw Battle

Indian spokesmen said their troops had launched a counterattack at about midnight and fought through the day until they dislodged Pakistani troops from the east bank of the Munnawar Tawi rivulet east of Chhamb. The battle is reported to have seesawed across this stream for several days.

For the first time in the war, India said today she had lost more aircraft than Pakistan had lost in a single day. The Indians said they had lost three jets on the western front and a naval aircraft over the Arabian. Sea. Pakistan lost two planes, India said.