পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৬৭৯

647 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ২৩৪। ইন্ডিয়া-পাকিস্তান যুদ্ধের জন্য ফার ইষ্টাৰ্ণ ইকনমিক রিভিউ ৩০ অক্টোবর, ১৯৭১ প্রস্তুত FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW, OCTOBER 30, 1971 INDIA-PAKISTAN: ARMED TO A POINT By A. Hariharan New Delhi: The Armed forces of India and Pakistan are fully geared for war. "From alert to scramble should not take more than two minutes", said India's minister for Defense Production last week. And sabre-rattling goes on all the time. Car strikers proclaiming "Crush India" and "Conquer India" are out in force in Lahore. Karachi and other Pakistan cities. Indian Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram said a new war would be fought on Pakistani soil and India would not only take the cities of Lahore and Sialkot in Punjab but keep them for good. Ram was obviously referring to the 1965 war when the Indian army marched up to the outskirts of Lahore but did not take the city, following the Tashkent agreement. India had to withdraw from the area and also give up the strategic heights of Kargil and Haji Pir in Kashmir which had been gained at great cost. There are conflicting versions about the "22-day war" of 1965. Political leaders maintain India did not take Lahore because of the problems involved in feeding the civilian population. However, General Harbaksh Singh who was Commander of the Western Sector at the time has said the corps commander after having established a bridgehead across the Lechogil canal in Lahore, got cold feet and failed to consolidate his gains. There must be some truth in this for the corps commander was subsequently fired. What may prevent war this time is the extremely difficult military situation Pakistan faces. In 1965 both countries refrained from opening a front on the East Pakistan border. Today, with the Bengali population ranged as one man against Pakistan Government there, 80,000 troops in the Province will be bottled up and perhaps annihilated in the first hours of the War. There are reports Pakistan already has withdrawn one infantry division from the Hast to strengthen defenses in the Western Wing. Can it afford to write off the rest? Pakistani military Aircraft and Neval Ships will be unable to make use of Ceylon and any attempt to hold East Pakistan in a shooting war likely to prove helpless. The military rulers might well see virtue in withdrawing troops from the East and concentrating on the Western Sector with the aim of capturing some Indian territory in Kashmir, Rajasthan or Gujrat, that would be the only way to save face, given the certain loss of East Pakistan,