KILLING on a mass scale is under way in East Pakistan, caught in the grip of a vicious civil war, according to all available indications from the province which is now virtually sealed off from the outside world.
Diplomatic sources which still have tenuous radio links with their missions in Dacca as well as foreign observers who have left the province since fighting began on Friday, say the 70,000 West Pakistan soldiers are showing no mercy in their bid to suppress the Bangla Desh independence movement.
Estimates of the number of Bengalis who have been killed range from 10,000 to 100,000. Whatever the true figure there can be no doubt not only of the Army's determination to impose its will on the province but of the relish and ruthlessness with which it will do so.

Hatred voiced

Many senior West Pakistan officers stationed in Dacca during the two years of President Yahya Khan's martial law regime have openly voiced their hatred of their Bengali compatriots
The past two, always tense, years have encouraged this bitterness and rancour to smoulder and grow.
The clandestine "Radio Bangla Desh" thought to be in the isolated tea plantation area in the north of the province last night announced that a provisional government had been set up, headed by Major Jia Khan, chief of the Bangla Desh "Liberation Army" since March 25.
The Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would "guide" the Government. He was directing the liberation struggle from his revolutionary headquarters in Chittagong, the radio said.

Capture hint

But the wording of the announcement contains a hint that Sheikh Mujib may have been taken prisoner by the Government forces as they moved into position on Thursday night, before fighting broke out.
In this case, the Sheikh described as "Pakistan's next Prime Minister" by President Yahya last month and as "a traitor" last Friday, may by now have been shot.
Thirty newspapers and television correspondents and cameramen from Britain, America, Australia, West Germany, Japan and other countries who were rounded up by the Army on Thursday night and flown out of East Pakistan at gunpoint, yesterday spoke of being roughly treated by West Pakistan Army and Air Force officers.
Mr. Donald Hook, of the Australian Broadcasting Company, said he was stripped and searched three times. His type writer, tape recorder and camera were torn open and all notes, documents and private papers confiscated.
When some correspondents protested at this kind of treatment, an air force squadron leader threatened them with a pistol and said: I have already killed some of my own countrymen; now I can kill you.
The correspondents were taken into custody on Thursday night after the breakdown of the constitutional talks between President Yahya and Sheikh Mujib and were locked under armed guard in a room at Dacca airport.
On Friday, they were flown to Colombo by special military plane and then to Karachi.

Victories Claimed

With communications now almost entirely cut, the sporadic reports coming from Dacca and elsewhere in East Pakistan cannot be verified.
Sheikh Mujib's clandestine radio has claimed the capture of the key town of Rangpur. It said hundreds of young men surged towards the Army's district headquarters in the twon and took it after a bitter fight with the West Pakistan troops.
Since then, the radio claimed, all West Pakistan soldiers and border guards had retreated from the district, the radio said thousands of volunteers of Sheikh Mujib's Awami League were now marching on the capital, Dacca.
It also claimed the capture of Army cantonments at Comilla, Jessore, and Khulna by Bangladesh forces.
According to the radio, West Pakistan forces have resorted to bombing undefended positions held by masses of Bengalis. It said that at least two hospitals, including one at Dacca, had been badly hit.
Helicopters were shelling the heavily populated towns of Comilla and Chittagong, in the south-eastern half of the region. Chittagong was the centre of greatest tension all through the crisis which led to the present fighting.
There is also concern that fighting may simply spread across the border, which is open for many miles, like a forest fire. This could be a particular danger if the West Pakistan army adopted a "scorched earth" policy in a mood of sheer vindictiveness - a quality it does not lack.
Mrs. Gandhi told the India parliament on Saturday that India play whatever part it could in alleviating the distress of the people of East Pakistan.
Despite pressure from many members to show a more positive response to the plight of innocent civil war victims, Mrs. Gandhi spoke in cautious and moderate tones. She indicated that India could not openly support a "secessionist movement" in a neighbouring country.
India, she said, had to take into account the national and international repercussions of the crisis. But the Premier made clear that she deplored West Pakistan efforts to suppress the East wing's popular movement by force.
She said the borders with India would remain open for refugees. Her statement was welcomed by Radio Bangla Desh last night.
Following an emotional discussion in the Lok Sabha (Lower House), Pakistan protested to India about interference in its internal affairs. The Pakistan High Commissioner, Mr. Hyder, also lodged a complaint about Indian news coverage.
There is no indication of how the estimated 800 British expatriates still in East Pakistan are faring, as the British High Commission in Dacca, along with all foreign missions, had been forbidden to use its transmitter.
But there is no great cause to fear for their safety.