Khrishnagar (on the Indo-Pakistan border), March 31

West Pakistan troops have failed to consolidate their positions in the rural areas of East Bengal and it appears that smaller groups of troops at company level have been overwhelmed by the vast rural population and are retreating to the main towns.

However. reports that the "Liberation Army" has overrun these towns can now be disregarded and, with the exception of Chittagong and Rangpur, the Pakistan Army seems to be entrenched in all the important cities, such as Dacca, Jessore and the port of Khulna.

This picture is based on radio messages monitored on the Bengal border and information furnished by the south-east headquarters of the " Liberation Army " today.

I managed to make direct contact with the "Liberation Army " in Bengal today for the first time since the civil war erupted in East Pakistan.

After asking the Indian telephone exchange to put me through to the small town of Kushtia, in south-east Bengal, I asked for the headquarters of the "Liberation Army" and was connected to a Dr. Babul Huq, who explained that he was second in command to a Major Mohammad Osman Choudri. the south-east headquarters commander.

Troops beaten to death by mob

Dr. Huq told me that Pakistan aircraft dropped "about 15 bombs on the town last night and killed a large number of West Pakistan troops holed up in the city school"

He said that many of the troops had been surrounded by a huge mob. When their ammunition had nearly gone, they attempted to escape but 30 were captured and "beaten to death".

The rest of them scattered and dispersed. "But we are hunting them down and should deal with them tonight" Dr. Huq said.

He said that he could not estimate the number of casualties, but people "were dying like flies".

He said that a 12-year-old boy called Aziz Rahman had killed a machinegunner with a shotgun last night.

Indicating that the Army was in control in the main urban areas, Dr. Huq said that his force had cleared the Kushtia area of West Pakistan troops.

Dr. Huq could not give details of the whereabouts of the East Bengali leader Shaikh Mujibur Rahman. In spite of the "Liberation Army's" contention that the Shaikh is free, Dr. Huq could not explain why his voice had not been heard on Free Bengal Radio.

The intense hatred and slaughter throughout Bengal manifested itself on the border here today when jubilant villagers rushed to a post to exhibit the severed heads of West Pakistanis. They claimed that isolated troops in the east of Bengal had been killed by men of the East Pakistan Rifles and villagers.