April 30, 1971

About four million people in south-central Bangladesh, ravaged by a cyclone and tidal wave in November 1970, were facing starvation because the war had halted emergency food distribution, reported the Washington Post.

The officials who said they maintain contact with leaders of the Bangladesh liberation movement said the area hit by the cyclone had gone mostly untouched by the fighting. The area consists of the Ganges River Delta districts of Patuakhali and Barisal and some remote offshore islands in the Bay of Bengal.

The Bangalee officials said 60,000 tonnes of food had been sent to the area before March 26, but another 160,000 tonnes were never sent because the war shut down the ports in Bangladesh and the access roads to the area.

They said no food had been shipped to the victims for the past month also because there was almost no civilian administration in Bangladesh and the army, which handled much of the operation, stopped to concentrate on the fighting, reported the Washington Post.

In Paris, where representatives of 11 nations involved in the relief operations were meeting, it was estimated that as many as 30 million to 60 million of East Pakistan's 74 million inhabitants could starve.

In Washington, officials also said the food distribution had been disrupted and urged the Pakistani government of President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan to resume shipments immediately.

HOSSAIN ALI TO HEAD BANGLADESH MISSION IN INDIA

Hossain Ali was appointed by the Bangladesh government as the head of its mission in India. But as the mission's work was now limited mainly to Kolkata the Bangladesh government wanted to open only a kind of subordinate mission in New Delhi.

KM Shehabuddin and Amjadul Huq, former Pakistani diplomats now pledging allegiance to Bangladesh, were given letters of assignment signed by Foreign Minister Khondakar Mushtaque Ahmed. The Bangladesh government appointed the former as the head of the subordinate mission and Amjadul Huq as press attaché. The government asked them among other things to bring to the notice of the world the atrocities committed by Pakistani troops in Bangladesh and thereby create world opinion in her favour.

CURBS ON INDIAN ENVOY IN DHAKA GO

The restrictions imposed on the Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Dhaka, KC Sen Gupta, was lifted by Pakistan. The relaxation by Pakistan was supposed to be applicable to all other staff members of the Dhaka mission, now closed down. A compromise solution of the two governments' differences could be expected shortly, Reuters reported.

AUSTRALIAN ACADEMICS PROTEST GENOCIDE

Eighty-five academics of the Australian National University protested to Pakistan against what they called the policy of selective genocide and indiscriminate killing pursued by Pakistan in Bangladesh.

They recognised that there should be "a grave cause" to justify foreigners in criticising a government for the manner of handling its "internal affairs", but, they said, "we consider that actions of the government of Pakistan and its army are so ruthless and so terrible as to make it impossible for people of conscience to remain silent".

Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at sajen1986@gmail.com