পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৯০

458 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ১৮৪। ঢাকায় সমাপ্তি গাডিয়ান ১৫ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১ THE GUARDIAN, LONDON, DECEMBER 15, 1971 Editorial THE END IN DACCA General Tiger Niazi sums up matters with familiar flamboyance. "It is now a question of living or dying and we shall fight to the last man. The army will die. There will be no troops left to be repatriated." Tunes of glory; but also tunes of colossal waste and infinite futility. There is no reason why thousands of encircled Pakistani troops should be cut slowly to pieces. There is no reason why the sprawling slums of Dacca should vanish beneath hapazard shelling. There is no reason (as a panic-stricken civil administration clearly realises in bloodily prolonging Yahya Khan's heroic fictions. Bangladesh exists. Bangladesh cannot be negotiated away. Mrs. Gandhi has Eastern victory in her grasp; General Niazi's desperation may win him a footnote in history but nothing more. How, then, can the carnage be stopped 2 World pressures' thus far have floundered in a quagmire of politicking and polemics, and precious little hope lies there. East action can only stem from two people: Mrs. Gandhi and Yahya Khan. If Mrs. Gandhi won't halt her conquering forces, Pakistan's President should face the reality he has spent an appalling year avoiding-the reality of peace rather than jehad, negotiation rather than bluster. Furthermore, his American allies have a firm duty to tell him as much. The time for White House pique and sterile lecturing against New Delhi is long past. Of course (as the Guardian has argued) Mrs. Gandhi should stop. The risks of slaughter are too great; the perils of a total puppet state too obvious. Bangladesh deserves better than a prolonged bloodbath. But, sadly, one prime reason why India grinds on towards complete annihilation is Pakistan's refusal to talk realistically and America's reckless championing of her case. We know that President Nixon "holds Yahya in esteem." We have also been told, by both Mr. Bush and Mr. Bhutto that Islamabad was on the point of discussions with Awami Leaguers when New Delhi struck. Thousands have died and over a £ 100 million worth of military hardware (enough to feed nine million refugees for four months) has been destroyed because India wouldn't wait, Some of these charges carry discomforting weight; some will hang heavy around Mrs. Gandhi for the rest of her career. But they are irrelevant now and they indirectly reveal a bezarre situation: that the negotiations for an autonomous Bengal which Yahya and Mr. Nixon were "minutes away" from proposing before India moved are now deemed impossible when Pakistan's Eastern army confronts utter destruction. Will Islamabad, swallowing false pride, order Niazi to give in; acknowledge the independence of Bangladesh; free Sheikh Mujib and send him home 2 That way saves lives. It also, in the contorted terms of realpolitik on the sub-continent, preserves a vestigial West Pakistani voice in Bengali affairs. Sheikh Mujib and his followers will not want to play stooges to New Delhi overlong. However, feelings fun now, there may be some future links with the West. All trade may not be shattered, all friendships severed. Pakistan has something to lose from a "fight to the last man." And Yahya Khan, stumbling too late from one blunder to the next, m us I know jt.