Pakistani forces have succeeded in rounding up the entire top leadership of the East Pakistani independence movement, according to first‐hand information reaching New York.

The source of the information was a prominent man, in a high‐level position, from a Western country who spent the last three weeks of March in Dacca, the East Pakistani capital, where the army moved to reassert the military Government's control on March 25. His exceptional opportunities to follow developments there included contacts with the leaders of the Awami League, headed by Sheik Mujibur Rahman.

As evidence of Sheik Mujib's arrest, the Western source cited the fact that his voice had not been heard on the broadcasts of transmitters identifying themselves as voices of liberation. In any event, he added, there is no doubt that Sheik Mujib's associates in the leadership, about 100 in all, disappeared in the early stages of the crackdown.

Points to Passions

It is impossible to say, he went on, whether these leaders have been executed. Earlier this week, Sheik Mujib was reported to be held in West Pakistan.

In Washington, the State Department disclosed that the United States had urged the Pakistani Government to take “every feasible step” to end the conflict in East Pakistan and to achieve “a peaceful accommodation.” This appeal, whose tone seemed sterner than previous expressions of concern and of hope for peace, followed the completion of an airlift of about 500 private American and United States employees from East Pakistan. [Page 3.]

In the view of the Western observer, who left Dacca last week, the arrest of Sheik Mujib and his aides may be the Pakistani Government's most important success thus far in its effort to reassert and maintain its authority in the East.

But, he said, the passions aroused by the military action in the province have created a situation that could lead to an eventual “major disaster,” even if Pakistani troops manage to restore order for the time being.

The Pakistani Government, which has long asserted that its troops are in control of the province and dealing with pockets of “miscreants,” acknowledged yesterday that it had had to send aircraft into action in the northern part of the province. The Indian Government said through a spokesman earlier this week that it had information indicating that Sheik Mujib's supporters were in control in that area.

Comment by China

In another comment yesterday, Communist China broke its silence over events in East Pakistan. Hsinhua, the Chinese Communist press agency, said in a broadcast heard in Tokyo, according to United Press International that Peking had accused India of “flagrantly interfering in the internal affairs of Pakistan.” Previously, Hsinhua had limited itself to reports without comment on events in Pakistan.

Indications that the Pakistani Army was gaining the upper hand in the East were reported by the Westerner, who left Dacca about a week ago. The reason for the gain, he said, is in large part the great number of reinforcements received from West Pakistan.

Before the fighting began, he said, Pakistan started sending troops from Karachi to Dacca at an average rate of 10 flights a day.

These planes have to take the long way around, by way of Ceylon, because of India's refusal to allow them to fly over the 1,000 miles of her territory separating West and East Pakistan. Some planes, the Westerner said, fly nonstop but others land in Ceylon to take on fuel, thus increasing their passenger capacity.

At an average of 100 soldiers a flight, which he considered likely, this indicates that a minimum of 20,000 Pakistani troops have been sent to Dacca in the three weeks since the airlift started. Return flights, reportedly are used to evacuate families of West Pakistani soldiers stationed in the Dacca area, together with some foreigners.

The source said that while he was in Dacca, foreigners were free to go where they liked except during the nightly curfew. However, he said he knew from personal observation that almost any Pakistani spotted talking with a foreigner promptly disappeared.

Casualties Uncertain

This fact, he said, together with the ban on telephone communications, made it impossible to gather even a preliminary estimate of the number of casualties.

At the same time, the source pointed out that the freedom to wander about Dacca did not apply to correspondents from Western countries. When the fighting began, they were confined to their hotel and then expelled from the country a few days later.

The source said he had also learned during his stay in East Pakistan that while food was adequate in the countryside, it was very short in the cities because of a lack of transportation. The fighting, he said, was preventing farmers from planting rice, the main staple of East Pakistan, and this foreshadows serious food shortages later in the year.

He asserted that the Pakistani authorities had begun a campaign to eliminate university professors and students and indeed all of the region's intellectual elite. These, he said, were held responsible by the Pakistani authorities for the bid for independence.

The source expressed the view that one reason for the Awami League's victory last December in the elections for a National Assembly was the failure of the Pakistani Government to provide effective relief to areas along the Bay of Bengal that were devastated by last fall's cyclone and tidal wave.

The league, which campaigned for regional autonomy, won a commanding majority in the assembly, which was to have met March 3 to begin writing a constitution returning Pakistan to civilian rule. This majority, the source said, would have entitled Sheik Mujib eventually to take over the Government from President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.

But the President postponed the assembly, and East Pakistan was swept by protest, strikes until March 25, when the military action began.

The sources said that Sheik Mujib and his aides had intended to use the political predominance won in the assembly elections to make up for the neglect East Pakistan had suffered under a Government that has been controlled from West Pakistan ever since the country was established in 1947.