1971-03-09
By Tillman Durdin
Page: 1
Special to The New York Times
DACCA, Pakistan, March 8—The Chief Justice of the High Court here refused today to swear in the new military governor for East Pakistan appointed in West Pakistan last week by President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.
The Chief Justice, B. A. Siddiqui, was complying with yesterday's call by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistani nationalist leader, for a weeklong strike in Government offices and the courts against the military administration of this eastern province. The new governor, Gen: Tikka Khan, arrived last night.
Since today was a Moslem holiday here, Government offices and businesses were already scheduled to be closed. A major confrontation with the military administration appears likely tomorrow.
In appointing the new military governor, President Yahya Khan ordered the Pakistani armed forces to uphold the integrity and security of the country in the face of the swelling East Pakistani movement to assert self‐rule.
Fearful of widespread violence, many foreign residents of East Pakistan have started to leave. A West German Government. plane took out more than 100 Germans today, and may return tomorrow for the rest of the 200 German residents. A Belgian plane is standing by in New Delhi to evacuate Belgians from Dacca’ if necessary and plane is due tomorrow to evacuate British residents.
The American consulate general here has stated that there is no immediate intention of evacuating the 1,000 Americans in East Pakistan but that planes can be here in 24 hours if necessary.
Normal international air services into Dacca have been interrupted except for some sporadic unscheduled flights.
New signs of East Pakistani resistance to what is regarded as West Pakistan's domination of the two‐section country were provided today by leaders of student groups who said they were preparing bombs and other weapons as part of their program to oppose martial law.
Student groups are an important element in Sheik Mujib's Awami League, which is leading the nationalist movement in East Pakistan.
Student leaders, who are more radical than officials of the Awami League and who want an independent East Pakistan, said they were satisfied with Sheik Mujib's statement at a mass rally yesterday in which he outlined a program of resistance to the military authority including strikes in schools and refusal to pay taxes.
Sheik Mujib said he would not consider attending a meeting of the new National Assembly that is supposed to draft a constitution for Pakistan unless martial law was terminated and power turned over to the people's representatives here.
The crisis began last week after President Yahya Khan announced an indefinite postponement of the Assembly, in which the Awami League would be dominant. It had expected to use its majority‐167 of the 313 seats—to write constitution that would give East Pakistan regional autonomy with control over its foreign trade, foreign exchange and foreign aid.
The postponement followed refusal by the dominant party of West Pakistan, the leftist Pakistan People's party, which wants what it terms an effective federal government, to attend the opening session, scheduled for last Wednesday.
Sheik Mujib called a general strike last week in protest, and the martial‐law authorities here said today that 172 persons were killed and 358 injured in disturbances last week in Dacca and other parts of East Pakistan. The authorities’ statement said that rioting between Bengalis and what it described as migrants from outside East Pakistan had caused 78 of the deaths and 205 of the injuries.
As the crisis deepened last week, President Yahya Khan announced a rescheduling of the Assembly for March 25, but Shiek Mujib has now refused to attend this session as long as military rule continues.
Increasingly the Awami League is becoming an alternative authority to the representatives here of the central Government in West Pakistan. League sources said today that agents of the movement were taking steps to deal with problems in the government and in the private sector of the economy.
Awami League members were reportedly prepared to resist any efforts by the military administrators to force Government employes to go to work tomorrow.