| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
| ১০৬। যুদ্ধের আলামত | নিউজ উইক | ১ নভেম্বর, ১৯৭১ |
NEWS WEEK, NOVEMBER 1.1971
'THE SMELL OF WAR'
Across the desolate Punjabi plains of West Pakistan, columns of rumbling tanks kicked up billowing dust clouds. And a thousand miles away, along the marshy India East Pakistan border, the night lime silence was shattered by the roar of artillery. In hundreds of India's cities and villages, reservists were mobilized and air force pilots were put on a two-minute alert, while throughout Pakistan thousands of “Crush India" stickers were plastered onto cars and houses. Everywhere in the subcontinent last week, the machinery of war was being set in motion. And though alarmed diplomats in Moscow, London and Washington tried to find a formula for averting a pointless conflict between India and Pakistan, the two antagonistic governments kept playing their increasingly menacing game. “The smell of war is in the air,” said a high ranking Indian official, And indeed it was.
Almost daily the movements of troops, tanks and heavy weapons increased until the armies of the two countries were almost gun barrel to gun barrel. Along India's border with West Pakistan. fifteen Indian divisions stood counterpoised against thirteen Pakistani divisions. Indian volunteer forces in border villages were quickly called on guard duty. In Kashmir, where Western intelligence sources said the Pakistanis were already infiltrating armed agents by the hundreds, two divisions were hurriedly dispatched to reinforce Indian positions. And in the east, an army of nearly 80,000 Pakistanis lined up against an Indian force of cqual size “All it would take." said one diplomat in New Delhi, “is one phone call and there would be a war."
The deliberate choice of war would be nothing new in the subcontinent. As recently as 1965, India and Pakistan fought a stalemated, 22-day battle for control of Kashmir. But while the two nations were of more or less equal military strength at that time, India now holds most of the trump cards. Although Pakistan's fleet of 60 sophisticated Mirage jets has a greater range than India's jets, India-due largely to a tremendous infusion of Soviet arms-has twice as many bombers and more than twice as many tanks Moreover, New Delhi canfield 900000 solders to Pakistan's 450.000. This statistical imbalance has led Indian official to muse of quick victories and permanent conquest. Said Indian Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram: “if war is thrust upon us, our forces will march forward and occupy their cities. And this time we will not move from our occupied territory come what may."
The biggest advantage to India, however, is that most Pakistani troops are already fled down fighting the so-called Mukti Bahini guerrillas in East Pakistan. Since President Mohammed Yahya Khan launched an extermination campaign last April against the insurgent Bangladesh state-eventually forcing more than 9 million refugees to flood into India-the Bengali guerrillas have built up a force of 50.000 men. Training largely in
