পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড).pdf/৫৭৫

এই পাতাটির মুদ্রণ সংশোধন করা প্রয়োজন।

539 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড persistence have caused the enemy to lose men and arms and retreat from one front after the other. Facts are on record that Pakistani Army is finding it hard to contain our valiant fighters on the land. It is the advantage of air cover that has given a temporary lease of life to the occupation army. The Mukti Bahini has now got over numerical deficiency in terms of the trained manpower. It has now a matching strength. Their moral strength is equally formidable. The owner of the soil does certainly find himself in an advantageous position over the aggressors. So, in the context of the Bangladesh war prospect, the most immediate tasks are: Recognition and the supply of sophisticated arms and planes, the latter being a concomitant of the former. Who will supply arms without recognition? Even India, which has been forced to foot the bill of feeding nine million mouths, can not supply arms to Bangladesh before recognition. The whole world know that the Mukti Bahini has been fighting mostly with whatever arms and ammunitions East Bengal Regiment, East Pakistan Rifles together with the auxiliary forces had been in possession as of 26"March, when they revolted. Furthermore, our men have been fighting with the enormous arms captured from the retreating West Pak Army. Because of the shortage of modern arms and weapons as also the absence of planes, the Mukti Bahini had to stick to guerilla warfare. But the crux of the matter is that guerilla warfare is not the answer to total independence. There has to be total war to achieve total independence. And short of total independence, no other course is acceptable either to the fighting force to the Bengali nation as a whole. Then again, guerilla war would mean a prolonged war with our fate shrouded in uncertainty. Would the Bengali nation remain contented with the prolonged war? No, never, because that does not go with the urge for freedom of the Bengali nation, which wants total independence at the earliest. It is, therefore, being strongly felt by those keenly observing the development of the war in Bangladesh that an all-out onslaught on the enemy, as in a conventional war, is imperative. Those who believe in the end of colonial rule and exploitation, those who believe in the right of self-determination of a distinct people, have to go into the question of helping the Mukti Bahini with necessary arms. There is no death of manpower in the Mukti Bahini. The deficiency is that of sophisticated arms; and next comes planes. Equipped with modern arms and planes, the Mukti Bahini can chase the enemy out of the soil of Bangladesh sooner than expected. The enemy, will then, either take to their heels, or surrender or perish. Of course, Bangladesh Navy will remain stand-by to take care of the fleeing West Pakistani marauders, it they choose the sea route. The issue of the survival of the eighth largest nation of the world is there. Can the freedom-loving nations of the world play a passive role at this hour of crisis of a nation