DACCA, EAST PAKISTAN.—Despite President A. M. Yahya Khan's announced amnesty for East Pakistani prisoners, Dacca remains a nightmare of men who have vanished.
A typical case is that of an eminent Dacca lawyer, Abdul Ahad.
"How is Alamgir Rahman?" he asked a banker friend about a prominent Dacca businessman, managing director of a Standard Oil Company branch and intimate of the jailed Awami League leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman.
Before long, friends were asking a similar question about Mr. Ahad. The Army said he had been arrested but had been released from custody and it had no news of his whereabouts. His wife insisted he was still alive although she has not seen him. Some friends believed he was dead.
AND WHERE IS HASSAN?
The Army here also said it has no idea of the whereabouts of Syedul Hassan, a wealthy Bengali who once was commercial counselor with the Pakistan legation in London. He quit his government career to become a backer of the pro-Maoist party of the octogenerian Muslim preacher, Maulana Hamid Khan Bashani.
Friends said he was drawn into the Army net after the military arrested a Hindu friend in Dacca. Mr. Hassan last was seen heading for an appointment in the Army cantonment here. carrying a check his jailed friend had requested.
The Army commander in chief, Gen. Hamid Khan, announced an inquiry into the disappearance.
The disappearance of two men, Fazlul Haque Chowdhury, deputy managing director of Pakistan International Airlines, and Wing Cmdr. M. A. Baaquie, regional manager in the East for a celebrated British-Dutch trading firm, inspired rumors they had been working for an arrangement for a Bangla Desh airline in the event of secession or an independent East Pakistan.
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Friends said Mr. Chowdhury last was seen entering a vehicle driven by an Army officer. The Army said it had no record of his being detained.
Bengali sources say at least 5,000 have been imprisoned in the East; the Army does not confirm the figure. The fate of many has not been divulged officially.