পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/১৮২

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খণ্ড
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A Revolution Going On

 He then added. “There is a revolution going on there [in Pakistan], isn't there? We don't want to be involved in any way."

 During the afternoon, while the Padma was in the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, a small flotilla of three canoes, two kayaks and a row boat were in the water near Port Covington.

 The boats were manned by members and sympathizers of the Friends of East Bengal, a Philadelphia-based organization advocating the independence of East Pakistan. It reportedly has close ties to the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker organization, and some of yesterday's demonstrators were also active in a protest last summer against biological warfare research at Edgewood Arsenal.

Group's Plans

 Charles Walker, a spokesman for the group, which numbered about 35, said that the demonstrators would attempt to keep the Padma from docking at Port Covington. If that effort should fail, he said, they would try to blockade it in the port.

 The controversy surrounding the Padma began June 22, when the New York Times in a dispatch from Washington reported that the freighter was about to sail from New York. Scheduled to arrive in Karachi in mid-August, the ship was to carry eight aircraft, parachutes and “hundreds of thousands of pounds of spare parts and accessories for planes and military vehicles.” the Times said.

Ban On Arms Stales

 Referring to a State Department ban on arms sales to Pakistan issued March 25the paper quoted' an unidentified official as saying. “There has evidently been some kind of slippage here."

 After leaving New York, the Padma sailed to Canada, where officials banned the loading of any further shipments, however.

Report Discounted

 He said that the Canadian officials had prohibited the loading of cargo that contained “46 cases of spare parts, include spare parts."

 He also discounted the Times report, saying. “This is ridiculous. Somebody's been misinformed.

 “We don't have any military cargo aboard, none whatsoever. We have 10 boxes of smoke signals. Now, if this is ammunition...” the agent said. He also dismissed the talk about air planes in the cargo and said that the only air-related cargo were altimeters, “plane spare parts, nuts and bolts."