| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস-এর প্রধিনিধি সিডনী এইচ শ্যানবার্গের সাথে প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর সাক্ষাৎকার | দৈনিক নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস | ১৯ অক্টোবর, ১৯৭১ |
PRIME MINISTER INDIRA GANDHI’S INTERVIEW TO SYDNEY H.
SCHANBERG
The New York Times of October 19, 1971, published an interview given by The Prime Minister to its correspondent, Sydney H. Schanberg. The following is the text of the dispatch:
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has declared that the military situation on the borders between India and Pakistan is “quite grave”.
In an hour long interview, the Prime Minister added, “we certainly will do nothing to provoke an attack or to start any hostilities, but we have to be alive to our interests and safeguard our security”.
“Unfortunately”, she added, “Pakistan’s record has been one of hatred and desperation. The military regime has let loose a war on its own people, and there is no knowing what it will do next”.
The Prime Minister, who was interviewed in her office at the Government secretariat, seemed irritated when asked about military assistance India has been giving the Bengali insurgents in East Pakistan.
But she did not categorically deny that India was helping them. She said instead. “Perhaps you know, they have many helpers, mostly their own people, all over the world. Also, many avenues are open to them”. She did not claborate.
Later in the interview. Mrs. Gandhi said, “whether they have arms or not nobody can suppress the struggle”.
Mrs. Gandhi cited threatening statements from Pakistan which, we feel cannot be entirely ignored”. She mentioned, in particular, the speech last week of President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan in which he accused India of feverish military preparations” and called on his people to meet the threat as a nation of one hundred and twenty million mujahids or preachers of Islam, “whose hearts are pulsating with love of the Holy Prophet”.
The fifty-three-year-old Prime Minister firmly ruled out any peace talk at this time between India and Pakistan contending that Pakistan would first have to resolve the East Pakistan crisis by negotiating a settlement with the elected representatives.
For nearly seven months, the Pakistani army, composed almost entirely of West Pakistanis, has been trying to crush a Bengali secession movement in East Pakistan which
