পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫৮৩

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551 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড vo 16th April, 1971 MR. ZAKARIA CHOWDHURY ON 24 HOURS' Viewers of the BBC television current affairs programme 24 Hours last night watched an interview with Mr. Zakaria Choudhury who describes himself as the official emissary of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh. Mr Choudhury was asked what his reaction was to the news reports that resistance to the West Pakistan army in East Bengal is collapsing. He denied that this was the case, and claimed that the countryside in three quarters of East Bengal was under the control of the resistance forces. He said that though the army was in control of most of the towns, in the rural areas they would be operating in very difficult terrain, and he predicted that with the coming of the monsoon the West Pakistan troops would be waterlogged in their cantonments. On the question of recognition for the Provisional Government Mr. Chaudhury said that he hoped that governments would gradually come to believe in their cause. He said that they had no choice but to fight whether or not they were supplied with arms from outside. The interviewer asked him how he could justify continued fighting when it would cause so much suffering, and he said that the East Pakistanis had not wanted Pakistan to break up but the war had been forced on them. 8 | PAKISTAN IN THE WEEKLIES 17th April, 1971 by Mark Tully The leftwing weekly, the New Statesman, has a front page article about East Pakistan. The New Statesman says that the people of East Pakistan made their wishes known by voting so solidly for the Awami League in the recent elections. Nevertheless the New Statesman does not hold out any hope of international support rallying to the people of East Pakistan. The New Statesman thinks that economically East Pakistan would be more viable as an independent unit and that in the end it will become independent because the federation of Pakistan is, in the New Statesman's view an artificial structure. The lead Article in the Spectator which represents a more rightwing view than the New Statesman is also about East Pakistan. The Spectator also believes that Pakistan is not a natural unified state. It feels that West Pakistan's quarrel with India has exacerbated the strains between the two wings, and that under President Ayub Khan the West wing neglected East Pakistan. The Spectator thinks that the army will establish some form of control over East Pakistan but it fears that this control might degenerate into tyranny. In the end the Spectator says the army will leave East Bengal and East and west Bengal will unite. In the meantime the Spectator would like Britain to declare its outrage at the army's actions and stop all aid until the army starts relief operations. The Spectator fears that Britain will not take this stand.