পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৯০৯

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88.1 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড Another very clear example of this mentality has been furnished by the way India has handled the dispute about the equitable sharing of the waters of the Ganges, which flows through both India and Pakistan, with Pakistan the lower riparian. It has completed the construction of a barrage near a place called Farakka, in the State of West Bengal in India. That project is designed to divert the waters of the mainstream of the river, the Ganges, through a feeder canal to another river flowing entirely through India. The result will be that in the long dry season every year the barrage will have little or no water below Farakka for use in East Pakistan, thereby causing grave and permanent damage to the economy of that region. According to the assessment of our own and international experts, this Indian project will adversely affect the ecology and agriculture of seven districts in East Pakistan involving a total of 3.6 million acres of land. It will seriously affect navigation in the Ganges and its many spill-channels and distributaries. It threatens an inflow of sea-water, thereby reducing agricultural production, municipal supplies and industrial use of water and depleting fisheries and forest resources, especially in the Sundarbans. Moreover, reduced flow in the Ganges in Pakistan, downstream from Farakka, will silt up the river-bed and increase the hazards of flood in the rainy season. All these factors together are expected to affect the livelihood and vital and legitimate interests of as many as 25 million people, or roughly one-third of the population of the eastern wing of Pakistan. It is ironical, but not surprising, that at the same time that India professes grave concern for the people of East Pakistan, it plans and executes projects aimed at causing their economic ruin. India does offer to negotiate on this issue with Pakistan, as indeed it offers to negotiate on many other issues; but when such negotiations take place, as in this case. India prevaricates and uses various devices to avoid facing the real issue. I have mentioned these two major causes of the friction between India and Pakistan. Without this friction, and without the pervasive background of India's constant attempts to weaken and isolate Pakistan, the present India-Pakistan situation involving a threat to the peace would be totally incomprehensible. Had Indian rulers not been hostile to Pakistan, would they not find it unnatural and repugnant to try to take advantage of their neighbor’s internal difficulties? Would they not scrupulously refrain from interfering in our affairs? What is happening today on the borders of my country and our neighbor India, is not mere border skirmishes; it is armed intervention by one country, a Member of the United Nations, India, into the territory of another Member of the United Nations, Pakistan. India has been engaged for the past few months, and is engaged now, in a clandestine war on Pakistan. At a time when, regardless of the nature of the military action taken by the Pakistan Government in its own territory, India could have no conceivable fear of invasion, it has concentrated a large number of its forces, some 200,000, and its machines of destruction on the borders of East and West Pakistan. It has been engaging in incessant shelling and mortar-fire against East Pakistan. It regularly sends its own armed personnel into my country to cause death and destruction. It harbors, trains, ances, equips and encourages-sometimes even forcesthe dissidents to undertake acts of sabotage and to cripple the economy of East Pakistan. In short, India is at the moment carrying out acts of