পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৯২৬

এই পাতাটির মুদ্রণ সংশোধন করা প্রয়োজন।

898 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড forces who stole arms from the armories and who looted arms and ammunition shopswere supplied and armed by India, and I have drawn the Assembly's attention to an article in The New York Times of today. In regard to the question that the Representative of India has raised about an alleged death sentence having been passed on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, there is a news item in The New York Times today which states that a diplomatic defector from a Pakistan Mission made this statement on the authority of information that had been given to Pakistan Missions abroad before he defected. Let me here make a categorical statement: neither my Mission nor any such Mission has received any information from my Government about the question of a sentence passed on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Therefore, any defector from this Mission, who goes and states to the press that a sentence of death has been executed, is not speaking the truth, and I would wish that the Representative of India had exercised due care and caution before he came to fling this charge at us. I will also tell this Assembly that certain diplomatic defectors have circulated memoranda and letters to the correspondents here saying that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is dead. What purpose is served by circulating such wrong statements and falsehood is beyond our comprehension, but, at least, we would hope that Representatives of sovereign States would exercise greater responsibility than pamphleteers and propagandists in making charges and innuen does against other Government. Let me pass from replies to these charges, which are painful to me as to all of you, to something more constructive. Let me avail myself of this opportunity to renew the offers made by the Government of Pakistan to arrest the deterioration of the present India- Pakistan situation and for the creation of a climate of confidence conducive to the return of the displaced persons. These are our offers: Firstly, to have the number of persons, who were displaced from East Pakistan and went to India, ascertained by an impartial international agency, so that the controversy regarding the numbers of refugees who have left East Pakistan may be finally laid to rest. Considering the wide disparity existing between the number calculated by us and that alleged by India, only an impartial agency could arrive at an assessment which would be beyond challenge. Secondly, we offer to arrange the stationing on both sides of the border between East Pakistan and India of Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to facilitate the return and rehabilitation of the displaced persons. That is a proposal which was made by the Secretary-General, and it is clear that a measure of that kind would go a long way in improving the climate and establishing confidence. My Government affords all facilities to Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to visit areas of East Pakistan where refugees are returning, and to meet them. On the other side of the border, however, a curtain has been drawn which hampers the return of the refugees.