I shall comment on the draft resolutions later, but I feel I must place on record certain facts. I refrained from doing so yesterday, because I did not wish to prolong the time taken by the Council, to get to a vote on the draft resolutions before it. First, I should like to draw the attention of the Security Council to a misstatement of fact by India as contained in the Secretary-General's report (S/10410/Add. 1). According to a message from the Prime Minister of India, which was orally delivered to the Secretary General, it is claimed therein that Pakistan aircraft attacked the military bases of India at Pathankot and Srinagar-in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir-and at Amritsar on the afternoon of 2nd December. That is totally false. I waited until now to contradict that claim because 1 was checking the correct fact. On the instructions of my Government, I am now to state that Pakistan aircraft took counter-action against these airfields on 3rd December, and only after India six or seven hours earlier, had launched armed attacks against Pakistan along a 500-mile long front in the west.
I should like also to state on this occasion that I would request Ambassador Malik, when he refers to any remarks I make, kindly to quote them in context only wish to say that it is regrettable that he again made a statement yesterday which I had corrected, the day before. That was in regard to what I said about the existence of an internal crisis in Pakistan. In the political life of States, internal crises are not a fare phenomenon, but it is up to the people of those countries to overcome the crises and not for foreign powers to exacerbate internal divisions, promote secession and armed rebellion and, finally, launch armed attacks and use an internal crisis as justification for interventionist doctrines in the political life of other States.
Further, I should like to bring to the attention of this Council a roost deplorable action by India yesterday. On 4th December, the Secretary General, in an urgent telephonic message to me expressed his concern for the safety of United Nations personnel in East Pakistan and conveyed his decision to evacuate them to Bangkok. He requested that the Pakistan Government be approached to, see if a cease-fire could be arranged in Dacca from 10 a m. to 6 p.m. East Pakistan Time on 5th December to enable a transport plane to land at the airport and evacuate United Nations personnel to safety. The Secretary General also intimated that he was making a similar request to the Permanent Representative of India the Secretary-General's request was conveyed to the Government of Pakistan with all, due urgency. It was followed up by the Pakistan Mission with telephonic messages to Islamabad. It is understood that both the Governments of Pakistan and India agreed to a cease-fire in Dacca for 3 certain length of time to allow for the evacuation of United Nations personnel and foreign diplomats. However, the world now knows that the Indian air force chose precisely moment of evacuation of United Nations personnel to attack the civilian airport at Dacca. The perfidious nature of this attack needs to be condemned in the strongest, possible terms. It shows better then we can say what kind of attitude governs India at present. India's air force launches an attack on the territory of Pakistan at the time when it knows that the valiant forces of Pakistan are committed to observing a cease-fire. The innocent victims in this case are the international civil servants and diplomats, and it is a fortunate accident that no lives were lost.
