NEW DELHI, Dec. 14—India reported today that her troops, advancing rapidly from the north and the northeast despite heavy fighting, had reached within six miles of Dacca, the East Pakistani capital.
During the fighting for Joydebpur, five miles outside the main Pakistani garrison at Dacca, the commander of the Pakistani 93d Brigade, Brig. Khader Khan, surrendered with an unknown number of his men, the spokesman also reported. Brigadier Khader, who holds a rank equivalent to an American brigadier general, is the highest‐ranking Pakistani captured so far.
At the same time, India reported advances in five sectors on the 1,400‐mile western front, from Kashmir in the north to Rajasthan in the south.
India said that after two days of fighting, her forces had taken a 360‐square‐mile sector of Pakistani territory that juts into India on the Kashmir‐Punjab border around Pathankot, and a thousand square‐mile area in the Thar Desert east of Hyderabad.
Casualty Figures Given
In the Thar Desert area, civilian government is being established over Pakistani villages, an Indian spokesman said. However, Indian officials have continued to deny any territorial ambitions in West Pakistan and have said that these thrusts were necessary to safeguard Indian lines of communication.
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The Indian Defense Minister, Jagjivan Ram, told the Lok Sabha, the Indian Parliament, today that Indian casualties in the first 10 days of the war were 1,978 killed, 5,025 wounded and 1,662 missing.
Mr. Ram also said that India had captured 4,102 members of the regular Pakistani armed forces and 4,066 men from Pakistani paramilitary forces. Most of the paramilitary fighters are Razakars, the non‐Bengali residents of East Pakistan who were armed by the Pakistani Army to help combat the Bengali guerrillas.
By nightfall the Indian column advancing from Narsingdi, northeast of Dacca, had approached within six miles of Dacca and was fighting in the outskirts of the city, reports from the battlefield said.
Another Indian column, which began the day more than 20 miles to the north, advanced 10 miles toward Dacca and took the town of Tungi. A third column was a few miles farther away to the northwest.
The Dacca garrison, which was originally about 6,000, men, has been reinforced by 10,000 to 15,000 Pakistani troops who have retreated toward the capital to avoid the advancing Indians, an Indian officer estimated. Some Pakistani troops are believed to have occupied the university area in Dacca, the officer said.
Despite Brigadier Khader's surrender in the area north of Dacca, Indian officers said all indications were that the Pakistani commander in the capital Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, had ordered his men to fight to the end.
Stiff Fighting at Chittagong
In other action in the east today, the Indians reported taking the town of Bogra, 125 miles northwest of Dacca. But the Pakistani garrisons at Khulna, Comilla and Chittagong were still holding out in stiff fighting.
At Bogra, the Indians reported they had captured three vehicles of UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, which they said were filled with Pakistani arms and ammunition.
In the biggest battle on the western front today, India claimed to have thrust 20 miles inside Pakistan to the city of Shakargarh, opposite the Punjabi city of Pathankot.
Mountain Posts Seized
In heavy fighting, which was continuing tonight, India was said to have knocked out five Pakistani Patton tanks while losing four tanks of her own. It was in this area that India said she had occupied 360 square miles of Pakistani territory, including 100 villages.
The operation, which an Indian officer described as a “major probe,” is intended to relieve pressure on India's vital highway to Kashmir, which runs within two or three miles of the border at this point. Before the Indian thrust, Pakistani artillery had been able to fire on vehicles moving, up the road toward the Kashmir city of Jammu.
The Indians announced they had taken three more mountain posts near Kargil in northern Kashmir, bringing their total of captured Pakistani positions there to 26. They said they had also taken an important hill overlooking Poonch, at the border between the Indian‐held and Pakistani‐held sectors of Kashmir.
The nearby Chhamb battlefield, where there was heavy fighting all last week, was quiet again for the third straight day. But there was renewed heavy fighting in southern Rajasthan near the town of Nayarchor, 45 miles inside Pakistan.
In the air war, Indian planes attacked the Badin radar station near Karachi again today, and struck railroad marshalling yards at Lahore, destroying a large number of railway cars, an Indian military spokesman said.
Pakistani jet planes raided the Punjabi border cities of Pathankot and Amritsar, and bombed the airfield at Srinagar in Kashmir, damaging the runway. India announced the loss of two more fighter aircraft today, bringing her total of downed planes to 41. India claims to have knocked down 83 Pakistani planes.