1971-04-01
By Sydney H. Schanberg
Page: 1
NEW DELHI, March 3—The Indian Parliament accused Pakistan today of a “massacre of defenseless people” in East Pakistan that “amounts to genocide.”
Parliament also assured the East Pakistanis “that their struggle and sacrifices will receive the wholehearted sympathy and support of the people of India.”
[According to Reuters, a Pakistan radio broadcast monitored in New Delhi to day said that the Pakistani Government had accused India of infiltrating armed troops into border areas of East Pakistan.]
The Indian condemnation of the Pakistani Government, based in West Pakistan, and the expression of solidarity with the Bengali people of East Pakistan came in a resolution introduced by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and adopted unanimously in both houses to applause, cheers and thumping of benches.
Sitting in the diplomatic gallery in the lower house was Mrs. Sajjad Haider, wife of the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi. India and the two wings of Pakistan, all once British India, are members of the Commonwealth and maintain high commissioners rather than ambassadors in each others' countries.
Meanwhile, the picture of the fighting in East Pakistan remained confused, with all normal news channels blacked out.
There were no broadcasts to day by transmitters identifying themselves as voices of the resistance forces. The East Pakistanis have said they have set up a provisional government for Bangla Desh, or Bengal Nation. The radio silence could mean that the Pakistani army consisting of West Pakistanis, has tightened its control on the cities, where it generally believed here the transmitters have been situated.
The Government's radio spoke of “restoration of peaceful conditions in all major cities and the entire countryside” and said that the province was “gradually preparing itself to resume normal economic life.”
The fighting began last Thursday night when the army struck against the independence movement led by Sheik Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League, East Pakistan's dominant political party. In elections last December, it won a clear majority in the National Assembly, which was to have met March 3 to start writing a constitution to end the military rule of Pakistan. At that time, the Awami League was demanding regional autonomy.
But President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan postponed the assembly, and strikes and other protests followed in East Pakistan, with the Awami League gradually taking over control of the province.