“Inhabitants of the surrounding area of all or any such affected place or places will render themselves liable to punitive action collectively.”
This merely gives documentary evidence of resistance and the army response which would be known to anyone who has managed to step out of Dacca.
Here they would find that in the Sylhet where the forests in the Tea Garden areas provide natural cover is still unspecified and under control of the Bengal regiment. That a force is still holding out in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. That all over Bangladesh armed Bengali's have withdrawn into the rural areas and are harassing army units through guerilla action. This may be expected to increase in frequency and intensity as the resistance acquires more skill at this type of warfare, gets additional supplies and weaponry, of which sizeable quantities have already been captured from the Pak Army and when the monsoons make the logistical problems of the army more insecure. The capability for waging prolonged war is there because the political motivation of the people has been guaranteed by the indiscriminate character of the War waged by the army. By destroying villages within the range of their artillery and declaring these areas as “free fire zones” they have made the Pakistan army an object of hatred and a direct threat to the security of 75 million Bengalis who will be willing to resist or aid any resistance to this alien force.
Massive terror has however still secured scant gains for the Pakistan government. Whilst they command major towns these are ghost cities, depopulated, without any economic activity and without any administrative structure. Barely 10% of the population of these towns has stayed behind, if that, whilst the administration, which actually worked with the resistance during the phase when these towns were liberated, is not taking any chances by staying behind. This means that whilst the territorial orbit of army control may cover the province, in effect not more than a million out of 75 million Bengalis are within their administrative control. The army holds key junctions and operates along the grids set by the road network which permits it to move in heavily armed motorized convoys from one town to another.
As a consequence of this tenuous hold over the region, economic life is at a standstill. Even in the industrial areas of Dacca, Chittagong and Khulna, those industries which have not deliberately been destroyed, are barely operative because most of the labor force is still in the villages, fearing reprisal by the army. Exports are at a standstill because of the breakdown of communications and the disruption of the marketing framework. Many key personnel in the marketing of jute and other commodities, as well as imports, were either West Pakistani's or Hindus. These have fled or been killed so that very little can be expected to move in or out of Bangladesh in the near future. Congestion at Chittagong port due to continued absenteeism by port workers has further aggravated the problem.
Economic breakdown in Bangladesh is in itself of only marginal interest to the Yahya Government. Scorched earth policies which have, through the use of U.S. financed Saborjets and Chinese Migs, destroyed grain stores, tea gardens, factories, and.... Storage
