Awami League, a professor and other local persons. The letter making a plea for an independent East Pakistan with its own army, air force and navy, in which the persons who were to occupy the top posts were listed and whose copies were sent to USA. UK and USSR officials, appears to be the handi-work of a disgruntled East Pakistani airman posted at Peshawar. The third lot of posters put up recently outside the Secretarial at Dacca, in which a D-Day was named and a general uprising against the regime advocated, appear to have been written by some Secretariat employee. It is. therefore, probable that while in West Bengal the activity is centralized and organized, in East Pakistan it, at any rate now, is the work of individuals, who have, probably, no contact with each other. As the appearance of the posters has become more widely known, it is not unlikely that in future there will be a tendency on the part of different groups concerned to make contact with each other and to put the activity on a more systematic basis. In fact, it is not unlikely that the groups working on the two sides of the border may before long join hands and draw up a common plan of action. As there are indigenous elements ready to take the queue and as the police have, unfortunately, not been able to establish even in a single case the clear responsibility of any group or individual we must be ready for further intensification of the activity. With feelings of despondency and despair being spread mischievously on both sides of the border, a sense of community in adversity may be created.
Posters Directed Against Vulnerable Groups
The posters which contain slogans and catch-words must poison the public mind and arouse latent feelings of hatred and suspicion. They are aimed at vulnerable groups. The East Pakistan Liberation Party had a striking design of the posters with a red star and addressed the posters to secretaries and members of the Bar Associations, journalists and students in several districts. Their contents ponder to and excite feelings of regional chauvinism. For the common ills a scapegoat is offered. Such posters must, therefore, do a great detail of damage and unless checked, may affect the thinking of a large number of simple and well meaning people. Big movements have small beginnings and unless forces which can counter and neutralize their evil efforts can be generated, the atmosphere will continue to be vitiated and the public mind poisoned against West Pakistan.
The Role of India
There are reasons to believe that while India blesses this activity and would like East Pakistan to secede from Pakistan, it has not done anything concrete lately at the higher official level. India did, at one stage, support and encourages Bhashani, Mujibur Rahman and several others. At the movement, India has numerous troubles of her own and she is fighting a losing battle against the forces of regionalism. Her authority in Bengal is weak, and while she must be tempted to create trouble, she knows that such tactics will ultimately recoil on her and her own headaches will increase. A united Bengal with its enormous resources of foreign exchange and a rich and fertile soil may opt out of the Indian Federation or make demands which may prove too costly. The presence of communists subscribing to the Chinese line in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and the
