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1971-12-20

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India Says Negotiations Await a New Regime in Pakistan

By Fox Butterfield

Page: 14

BARS PRESSURES FROM OUTSIDERS Any Withdrawal Decision to 'Be Our Own,'

Defense Chief Says — Front Quiet

NEW DELHI, Dec. 19 — The western front between India and Pakistan remained quiet again today, on the second day of the cease‐fire, as India awaited word from Rawalpindi on who would lead the Pakistani Government in negotiations.

Official sources In New Delhi said that India had no clear information on the changing political situation in the Pakistani capital, where President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan was reported to be on the verge of resigning in favor of a civilian government.

The Indian sources said that any negotiations would now have to wait for the formation of the new Pakistani regime. The major issues to be resolved are the repatriation of prisoners, the disposition of territory captured by the two sides on the western frontier, and the release of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistani Bengali leader who is in prison in West Pakistan on charges of treason.

The Indian Government is believed to feel that without the release of Sheik Mujib the political situation in East Pakistan could become chaotic. India is consequently expected to make the Shiek's release its major demand in any negotiations.

The Indian Defense Minister, Jagjivan Ram, told a mass rally celebrating India's victory to day that any decision on withdrawal from occupied Pakistani territory “will be our own” and “no outside pressure will be allowed to influence it.”

Nixon Letter Undisclosed



In other developments today, an Indian spokesman said that India would not release the text of a letter President Nixon wrote to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi yesterday. Mr. Nixon's letter was said to have been in response to a letter Mrs. Gandhi wrote him last week asserting that he should not charge India with being the aggressor in the war.

Tajuddin Ahmed, premier of Bangladesh, as the Bengalis call East Pakistan, said today that his new government would not seek United States aid for refugee relief and rehabilitation.

In a speech at Mujibnagar—a fictitious name the Indian press uses for the seat of the Bangladesh government, actually Calcutta, India—Mr. Ahmed said it would be “absurd” to accept aid from the United States after America had “conspired” against Bangladesh while it was under Pakistani rule.

The only cease‐fire violation reported by India today was in the Uri sector in northwestern Kashmir, where Pakistani troops were said to have tried to take back a mountain post captured by India. An Indian spokesman said that the Pakistanis were thrown back.

Ahmadabad and Baroda, two Indian cities in the state of Gujarat along the southern part of the border with Pakistan, were briefly placed under air raid alert this evening, but no enemy planes appeared.

Reports from the Chhamb front in southern Kashmir, scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the 15‐day war, said that refugees who had been forced to evacuate their villages had begun to return. However, Pakistan captured about 50 square miles of Indian territory in the Chhamb area, and several thousand people will not be able to return yet.