Delhi, June 24
The Indian Government has asked the United States to intercept two Pakistan ships in the Atlantic and to confiscate a large cargo of American arms bound for West Pakistan.

Mr Swaran Singh, the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this in Parliament today and told angry members that American officials were “giving the request their urgent consideration”.

Large groups of both Houses of Parliament refused to accept the minister’s cautious replies and members asked the Government to use the Indian Navy to intercept the Pakistan vessels if the United States refused to comply with Delhi’s request. But Mr Singh refused to commit the Government to any drastic step and said the question was still hypothetical.

At the same time, Indian officials said that the Government was extremely gratified by reports that Britain would not resume aid to Pakistan until a political solution of the present crisis was found. “The United Kingdom has given the world a lead in a moral issue”, an official said.

But as Anglo-Indian relations reached a new dimension of understanding today, the American Government was bitterly attacked in both Houses of Parliament by all parties. At one point the Foreign Minister's voice was drowned by the angry shouts of Hindu chauvinists of the Jan Sangh Party and Communists vying with each other to condemn the United States.

The Foreign Minister went on to express his surprise and bitter disappointment at reports that the two Pakistan ships had been allowed to sail from New York with cargoes of military equipment after the United Slates had placed a ban on the sale of arms to Pakistan on March 25.

He said that during his recent visit to the United States he had been given an assurance that sales of arms to Pakistan would be banned until the crisis in East Bengal had been resolved. But within an hour of his return to Delhi he had been informed that two shiploads of American arms were on their way to Karachi.

The Government had protested to the United States and the Iridian Ambassador in Washington had been informed that there were certain loopholes in the present regulations. Export licences had been issued before the ban had been imposed.

“We have subsequently pointed out to the United States that any accretion of military strength to Pakistan, particularly in the present circumstances when military atrocities are being let loose on the unarmed people and defenceless people of Bangla Desh, would not only pose a threat to the peace and security of this subcontinent but the whole region.”


Delhi, June 24.— More than a thousand Indians demonstrated outside the American Embassy here today.