NEW DELHI, May 5 — A tentative agreement between India and Pakistan on repatriation of their diplomatic staffs in Dacca and Calcutta has bogged down over a Pakistani demand that India considers unreasonable.
Under the agreement two days ago, Pakistani diplomats in Calcutta and Indian diplomats in Dacca, East Pakistan, would have been flown to their home countries at 11 A.M. to day.
Two Soviet planes are standing by at Tashkent to airlift the Indian diplomats back to New Delhi, and an Iranian plane is reported standing by at an unknown airport to carry the Pakistani diplomats to Karachi, West Pakistan.
But Pakistan said today that the repatriation could not take place until a Pakistani representative had interviewed individually “each and every member” of Pakistan's former Deputy High Commission in Calcutta to ascertain which ones did not wish to return to Pakistan.
Offices Shut April 26
Pakistan closed her Deputy High Commission—or consulate —in Calcutta on April 26 and ordered India to shut her equivalent mission in Dacca, East Pakistan, on the same day.
This was eight days after the Pakistani consulor was taken over by the East Pakistanis on the staff, who were in the majority. The East Pakistanis declared the building the first foreign mission of Bangla Desh Bengal Nation—the name given by the insurgent Bengalis of East Pakistan to their area. The Pakistani Army has been trying to crush the secession movement since March 25 and has repeatedly charged Indian complicity in the secession.
Pakistan asserts she was forced to close her Calcutta consulate because India failed to provide the “necessary facilities” for Pakistan's new consul. India has denied this and all other Pakistani charges, just as Pakistan has denied all Indian charges growing out of the dispute.
The consulate is still occupied by the Bengalis, who Pakistan describes as “antistate, elements.” The 57 Bengalis have barred the approximately 30 West Pakistanis on the staff from the mission.
Pakistan now says that India has reneged on an agreement to provide facilities for the new consul to interview the Bengalis “individually, independently, privately and without duress” to determine their wishes about staying in India or going back to Pakistan.
India says she gave no promise but merely agreed to provide “such facilities at may be possible.”
Indian Foreign Ministry officials say there is no way they can force the Bengalis to meet with the West Pakistan consul individually—and no precedent for it in international or practice.