By Paul Martin
Our Special Correspondent recently in Dacca

The Pakistan military regime's attempt to crush Shaikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League, and so regain control of East Pakistan, may prove disastrous.

For in East Pakistan eyes it has served to justify the argument of the extremists that coexistence with the west-dominated Central Government is impossible and that the only solution is an independent Bangla Desh achieved by any means.

Throughout the three weeks of political confrontation with the regime Shaikh Mujibur harnessed the province into a well-disciplined force dedicated to the realization of his six-point programme of regional autonomy. There was an air of frustration among those of the extreme left to whom I spoke after the Mujibur-Yahya talks began. They criticized the shaikh."

When he settles, we shall be his deadliest enemies," I was told. "Settlement means fragmentation; a bitter struggle means a united Bengal behind our banner."

Overshadowed by the shaikh and isolated by the nationalist tide he created, the extreme left has been forced into silence during the past weeks. Even Maulana Bhashani, the paternal radical leader who is the only figure comparable with the shaikh in East Pakistan, was moved to lend a qualified support during a recent public rally in Dacca .

However, with the rules of the game changed drastically by the Army's move, his policy of violent revolution as a means to achieve Bengal's "liberation " can count on a more popular support now that the shaikh's non-violent movement has been dealt with so severely.

One reason for the inaction of the left has been the effect of the internecine strife between the Maulana's movement and various splinter groups.

Apart from the maulana's mainstream movement, which attempts to combine Marxist doctrine with religious fervour, the three main groups of the extreme left are the Ganashakti, which broke with the Bhashani group early last year and which pursues a pure Marxist policy, the Pabna group, led by the peasant leaders Matin and Allauddin, and the Zafar-Menon and East Pakistan Students Union.

The common factors that exist among all these groups are the belief in guerrilla action to dislodge the present state power, the sharpening of the class struggle in the rural areas, and the spread of secret revolutionary Marxist parties among the workers and peasants.

Hitherto the principal reason for the radical left's impotence in the face of Shaikh Mujibur's movement has been the fact that an open conflict with the Awami League would mean a collision with Bengali nationalism. Now a new role has been created for the radicals.

Whereas in the past the potentially militant supporters of a radical doctrine would not have exceeded more than the 10 to 20 per cent who are completely landless in East Pakistan's rural areas, the call for violent methods to confront the regime will have a much wider appeal.