Karachi. President Yahya Khan said yesterday that “the situation created by Indian aggression in the subcontinent is leading the two countries to a point of no return.” He was opening a heavy mechanical complex at Taxila which has been constructed with Chinese help. “Pakistan’s attempts to settle our dispute through peaceful means have so far been frustrated by Indian intransigence,” he said. “Although we wish to avoid a conflagration I would like to make it clear that we shall defend our territorial integrity with all the forces at our command. The Chinese Government will as always resolutely support us in our struggles,” the President said.

Intense fighting

Indian Air Force planes dropped food and ammunition to mountain troops - fresh from the Nagaland - fighting their way through the Chittagong hill tracts in an all out effort to cut off the port of Chittagong in the southeast. Their objective is also to prevent the Pakistan Army reinforcements leaving the Chittagong area for Feni 30 miles to the north where intense if small scale fighting is still in progress, for the possession of this tactically important village where road, rail and water routes converge.

North at the Ganges Indian troops attacked Pakistan positions in the Hili district, supported by Mukti Fouj guerrillas in battalion strength. They overcame the small Indian troops keep up the pressure in the Rangpur area and at Jaintiapur to the north of Sylhet. In all these smaller operations in the north the Indian Army is operating in cooperation with the Mukti who have developed new tactics. They infiltrate into the countryside in twos and threes dressed as peasants and take up positions behind the Pakistan defences. When the Indians launch their frontal attack the guerrillas begin terrorist activities in the rear of the Pakistan position. There is no doubt that the scale of this type of fighting is increasing.

Meanwhile, the civil authorities are taking counter measures with the help of the Army to prevent an attempted coup in the East Pakistan capital of Dacca and sudden curfew was for the second time imposed on the city on Wednesday.