পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৭৯

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447 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড The Security Council had, however, barely begun to consider Farman Ali's appeal when a message arrived from President Yahya Khan asking that it be disregarded. And in Dacca Farman Ali's immediate superior, Ll-Gen A. A. K. Niazi. GOC Eastern Command, appeared in person at the Intercontinental Hotel to refute rumors that he had fled the country. "I am here commanding my troops by the will of Allah," the general said. "And I will never desert them." Capitalizing on General Farman Ali's apparent break with the military command in Dacca, the Indian Chief of the Army Staff, General Sam Maneckshaw addressed a personal radio message to him advising surrender: "Resistance is senseless and will mean the death of many poor soldiers." Maneckshaw was not exaggerating. Indian troops converging on Dacca from west, cast and north had established their first bridgehead across the River Meghna. Troops were transported across the river by helicopter at Asuganj and were only 40 miles north-east of Dacca with virtually an open road to the city. Dacca was bombed in the morning and the afternoon as is it had been most days this week. The city's inhabitants seemed to have become used to the bombings and near the airport they gathered to gawk 'at an unexploded 2501b bomb with its clear markings indicating, with some irony, that it was made in the United States. On the Western front, in the Chamb area of Kashmir Pakistani, troops continued on the offensive. In the boldest action to date, four Pakistani battalions supported by artillery and armor crossed the shallow Munawar Tavi river to attack Indian positions on the eastern bank. India admitted it was suffering heavy casualties at the Pakistani forces pressed the mortar attack in the Chamb area. At the same time there were indications that India might accept the United Nations call for a ceasefire once the 'Bangladesh regime had been installed in Dacca. DAY 9: The end of Act 3 By yesterday, it was clear that Act III was over. Pakistani troops were beginning to surrender in large groups in the East. The Indian armies, having crossed the last major water barriers, were already tightening the ring around Dacca. In the West the Indians were holding fast along the ceasefire line in spite of everything the Pakistanis were throwing at them. Yet it was equally clear that Act III was not the end of the tragedy. There would have to be an Act IV. In Delhi, Nicholas Carroll found that, understandably after the Indian successes in Bengal, the immediate future course of events was seen as beguilingly simple and apparently inevitable. The scenario, in the minds of high Indian officials, he reported goes like this. The Pakistani troops in Bangladesh must in the end succumb. Even if a last ditch stand in Dacca holds up the time-table, there is no way out for them.