On March 31, 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi moved a resolution in parliament strongly criticising the military action in Bangladesh.
At 4:00am on March 30, 1971, Bangladeshi forces, comprising East Pakistan Rifles (EPR), police and civilians under the leadership of Abu Osman Chowdhury, then a major and commander of the fourth wing of EPR, attacked the Pakistan occupation army in Kushtia from three sides.
In the evening, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was flown via helicopter from the cantonment, where he was detained, to the Tejgaon Airport. Afterwards, he was flown to Karachi by a special military aircraft.
On March 28, 1971, American Consul General in Dhaka, Archer K Blood, sent a telegram to Islamabad and Washington captioned “selective genocide”. He reported that they were “mute and horrified by a reign of terror by the Pakistan military” in East Pakistan. Pointing towards various pieces of evidence, Blood suggested that Awami League supporters and Hindus were being systematically targeted by the martial law administrators.
American Consul General Archer K Blood in a situation report submitted on March 27, 1971, wrote that according to numerous accounts, including eye witness reports, the Pak military crackdown on Bangalee nationalists has been carried out throughout Dacca swiftly, efficiently (despite heavy resistance from some quarters, including pro-Awami League police and East Pak Rifles), and often with ruthless brutality.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a press statement issued today, called for a general strike throughout Bangladesh on March 27 against the army’s action in certain places in East Pakistan including Saidpur, Rangpur and Joydevpur.
There was a final meeting between Awami League’s team and Yahya’s advisers on March 24, 1971, at 6:00pm.
The representatives of president Yahya Khan and an Awami League team met twice today.
In a telephone conversion with American president Nixon, his security adviser Kissinger stated, “I will make it clear with the Indians that there isn’t going to be a war. …The problem—no military aid to Pakistan, they are not even getting economic aid. If anything will tempt the Indians to attack, it will be the complete helplessness of Pakistan.”
Handbills prepared by Bangalee guerrillas were distributed in Dhaka asking the population to begin evacuation of the city in preparation for a campaign against the Pakistan Army, reported The New York Times.
East Pakistan Governor Lt Gen Tikka Khan today admitted that a railway bridge in Cumilla had been blown up by the Mukti Fouj recently.
Foreigners in Dhaka were warned this week to avoid Chinese restaurants, which apparently became the latest targets for Bangladeshi guerillas.
KM Shehabuddin, diplomatic representative of Bangladesh, described Pakistan President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan’s threat of declaring war against India as a “desperate and heinous attempt to hide his shame and hoodwink the world opinion by implicating India”.
Pakistan President Yahya Khan in an interview published in The Financial Times today said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be put on trial “very soon”.
All the members of the Bangladesh mission interviewed by the Swiss representative Dr Bonard in Calcutta today refused to be repatriated to Pakistan and reaffirmed their allegiance to the Bangladesh government.
A three-member Canadian parliamentary delegation that visited Pakistan was told by Pakistani officials in Islamabad that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was at present in a jail in West Pakistan.
Reg Prentice, a member of the British parliamentary delegation which had visited both Pakistan and India to study the present crisis, wrote an account of his tour today in the New Statesman:
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Tajuddin Ahmed declared today that “military victory is the only solution to the situation in Bangladesh”, reported The People, a pro-AL English-language weekly.
