Seeking restoration of aid
Army commanders recently spread the word that low-caste Hindus were welcome to return to their homes. Observers view the gesture cynically, pointing out that without the low-caste Hindus-menial laborers, sweepers and washer men-the army has no one to do its dirty work.
Apart from the refugee $ in India, there are in East Pakistan millions of displaced Bengalis who fled their home when the army came and are still afraid to return. Recently there have been signs that the troops have been ordered to carry out their operations more subtly and less in the public eye. The orders, according to foreign diplomats, are inspired by Pakistan's desire to persuade an 11-nation consortium to resume economic aid, temporarily suspended in censure of the army repression.
[A special mission of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which co-ordinates the aid programme, has reported that the ravages by the military in East Pakistan will require that development efforts be suspended for at least a year. The mission made a widespread survey of the province in May and June.]
Diplomats in Dacca attribute Pakistan's decision to allow foreigners to travel freely through East Pakistan and to readmit foreign newsmen who had been barred since the offensive began except as participants in Government-guided tours-as part of the campaign to restore the aid.
Nonetheless the killing though it is more selective and less wholesale, has not stopped, and the outlook, most observers believe, is for a long and bloody struggle.
Bengalis pass the word
Foreign missionaries who are posted even in the remotest parts of East Pakistan report new massacres almost daily. One missionary said that the army recently killed over 1,000 Hindus in a day in a section of Barisal District, in the south. Another reported that in Sylhet District, in the northeast, a peace committee called a meeting of all the residents of one area, ostensibly to work out a' reconciliation. When everyone had gathered troops arrived, picked out the 300 Hindus in the crowd, led them a way and shot them.
Whenever a Bengali talks to a foreigner in public he is running a risk. At ferry crossings Bengalis sidled up to this correspondent's car to whisper a few scraps of information about army terror or, with a quick smile, about a raid by the guerillas of the liberation army.
As soon as six or seven people gathered a West Pakistani soldier or policeman would saunter over, glowering at the Bengalis, and they would melt away.
The presence of the army and its civilian informers notwithstanding, the Bengalis somehow find a way to tell their stories to the foreign, visitor—by slipping notes into his car or arranging' clandestine meetings.
