NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 15—Indian officials said tonight that the commander of Pakistani forces in the besieged city of Dacca had asked for a ceasefire, but that India had demanded a complete surrender of the enemy army in East Pakistan.

A deadline of 9 A.M. tomorrow (10:30 P.M. Wednesday, New York time) was set for a reply to the surrender demand, and the Pakistanis were warned that the Indian offensive would continue if its terms were not met.

Strong Warning Given

The Indian Army Chief of Staff, Gen. S. H. F. J. Manekshaw, said he had received a message “regarding a ceasefire” through American diplomatic channels from Lieut. Gen. A. A. K. Niazi, who commands Pakistani forces in East Pakistan, at 2:30 P.M. yesterday.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that General Niazi had given a message to be relayed by the United States Consulate in Dacca to the American Embassy in New Delhi.

[In Karachi, the national news agency said the situation in East Pakistan had become very critical, Reuters reported, but a military spokesman insisted that the Pakistanis were still winning the war.]

General Manekshaw ordered a suspension of Indian air strikes in the Dacca area from 5 P.M. yesterday until 9 A.M. today (6:30 A.M. Wednesday to 10:30 P.M. Wednesday, New York time), but he warned that unless the Pakistanis surrendered by then he would “resume my offensive with utmost vigor.”

Indian officials refused to make public the text of General Niazi's message or to summarize it. General Niazi was believed to have posed conditions that India found unacceptable—possibly that he be permitted to evacuate his forces from the East rather than surrender them to the Indians.

Meanwhile, an Indian spokesman said that Indian troops were “now much closer” to Dacca than Tuesday, when India reported some of her men within six to eight miles of the city's outskirts.

He said Indian forces had crossed the Lakhya River, barrier northeast of Dacca, and that another Indian column moving south from the town of Tungi had also made progress.”

“From all directions the ring is tightening,” the spokesman said.

A pool dispatch received in New Delhi from a group of correspondents with the advancing troops reported that Indian forces were preparing to link up two miles from Dacca for a final thrust on the city.

The dispatch said that forward elements were meeting resistance after crossing the Lakhya River. It said that Indian artillery was being brought up, and that Indian forces from Calcutta were being ferried in by transport aircraft, river boats, jeeps, rented buses and other conveyances for the offensive.

Indian officials said the message that General Niazi sent to General Manekshaw had been “witnessed” by Maj. Gen. Rao Firman Ali, the military adviser to the Governor of East Pakistan.

General Manekshaw's reply, also sent through American diplomatic channels, said: “I have received your communication regarding a cease‐fire in Bangladesh at 1430 hours today through the American Embassy in New Delhi.”

The Indian Army chief reiterated his previous assurances, made in radio broadcasts, that he would guarantee the safety of all military and paramilitary personnel who surrender and that he would also protect West Pakistanis and other non-Bengalis from any reprisals.

“Since you have indicated your desire to stop fighting, I expect you to issue orders to all forces under your command in Bangladesh to cease fighting immediately and surrender to my advancing forces wherever they are located,” General Manekshaw's message added.

General Manekshaw said that “as a token of my good faith,” he had ordered air action over Dacca suspended from 5 P.M. onward.

“Should, however, you not comply with what I have stated, you will leave me with no other alternative but to resume my offensive with utmost vigor at 0900 hours on 16 December,” he said.

General Manekshaw asked the Pakistani commander to answer him by radio and gave frequencies on which Indian radio operators would be listening for a reply.

“I assure you that I have no desire to inflict unnecessary casualties on your troops as I abhor loss of human lives,” the Indian general's message said.

Indian intelligence officers estimate the number of Pakistani troops defending Dacca at 15,000 to 20,000 men. When war began on Dec. 3, Pakistan had about 70,000 men in the East but some have surrendered and others are cut off and isolated in various pockets of resistance away from Dacca.

There were several hints that Pakistani resistance in the East was wavering, The Pakistani radio announced that President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, who has remained in the West, would broadcast to the nation at 7:15 P.M. tonight.

A Reuters dispatch from Dacca quoted a diplomat as having said that General Niazi was “near breaking point.”

The dispatch also discussed speculation that General Niazi hoped to arrange a cease‐fire that would allow him to repatriate or evacuate his forces, under arms and as an organized force under Pakistani command, from East Pakistan to the West.

India would not agree to such a plan, informed Indian sources indicated, but would insist on simple surrender with repatriation to follow a final peace settlement with West Pakistan.

India's unwillingness to disclose the contents of General Niazi's message seemed to indicate that it contained unsatisfactory conditions.

If he had offered to surrender, India would probably have simply accepted. This had clearly not happened.

Politically conscious Indians and Indian newsmen were in a state of excitement and indignation over reports that the United States aircraft carrier Enterprise and its task force was approaching this area.

An official spokesman said India had information that the American task force had emerged from the Strait of Malacca into the Bay of Bengal.

“We are not clear about its intentions,” he said, and added: “It remains to be seen which direction it takes now.”

Comment by Envoy in U. S.

The Indian Ambassador to the United States, Lakshmi K. Jha, had said in Washington that India had been told by reliable sources that the American task force might be planning to set up what he called a “beachhead” to evacuate Pakistani troops and officials from East Pakistan.

The official spokesman in New Delhi did nothing to discount Mr. Jha's remark and said he had been acting as the official Indian representative when he spoke.

Even Indians who doubt that the Enterprise and her sister ships would try to evacuate the Pakistani forces regard the mere approach of the carrier as crude and unacceptable pressure by the United States.

The western war front remained much quieter than the east, but the pace of fighting there seemed to be increasing.

The Indians said that they had “pressed on with our forward probing movement” near the West Pakistani town of Shakargarh and “the battle of Shakargarh is now going on.”

Salient Is Believed Captured

Shakargarh lies about 15 miles from the Indian‐Pakistani border west of the Indian city of Pathankot. A bulge or salient of Pakistani territory juts into India at this point, and the Indians indicate that they have occupied the salient. Yesterday they said they had seized 360 square miles of Pakistani territory in the area.

Although India describes the fighting there as a “major probe,” it seems to be stiff, combat. India said she lost five tanks yesterday in the area, destroyed five Pakistani tanks and had captured one in running order. That brought tank losses in two days in the area, according to Indian statements, to nine Indian and 11 Pakistani tanks.

Another battle is continuing in the desert sands near the Pakistani town of Naya Chor east of Hyderabad. India claims to hold about 1,000 square miles of Pakistani soil in this southern area.

Near Fazilka in the Punjab, India said she had destroyed two enemy tanks and captured one. Also on the western front, India said her forces had withdrawn from two captured Pakistani outposts after the Pakistanis counterattacked.

In East Pakistan, Indian forces were still attacking to subdue isolated enemy garrisons near the towns of Khulna and Comilla, Indian spokesmen said. The Indians said they had overrun about half the area of the Pakistani cantonment near Comilla and that “enemy resistance has been considerably reduced due to heavy pressure.”

Indian forces were described as driving close to the major port city of Chittagong.

An Indian spokesman said that in the Dacca area Indian pilots had seen five bunkers with “civilians tied on top with a view to preventing us from attacking them from the air.”

He said that there were also “reliable reports” that Pakistani forces were using the roof of the Inter‐Continental Hotel as an artillery observation post. At the request of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the hotel has been declared a neutral zone.

There is deep enmity between the Bengali‐speaking civilians of East Pakistan, who make up the overwhelming majority in the province, and the Pakistani Army, which is composed almost entirely of men from the Western wing. The Bengalis have been in revolt since the central Government began to use force last March to crush what began as a movement for more autonomy in the East, but is now a demand for independence.