PART I
SUB: Pestering and leafleteering campaign in East Pakistan.
In East Pakistan, one of the means adopted to ventilate individual and group opinion is through posters and leaflets, which are generally anonymous. This is almost a traditional feature in this province. In 1957 alone about 600 posters and leaflets were issued. This sort of activity was generally indulged in by individual members or workers of NAP and other political parties opposed to Awami League, the party-in- power. A significant feature in these was that the slogans contained were against the country's foreign policy, military pacts, demands for regional autonomy, lower prices of the essential commoditics, etc. None of the leaflets and posters ever suggested independent East Pakistan or unification with West Bengal though during the Parliamentary regime the people had greater latitude to express their opinion. This indicates that none of the political parties and their supporters ever desired to undo or undermine Pakistan.
2. Since Martial Law, about 44 leaflets and posters have come to notice. Of these. 33 are internal and 11 external. The 11 leaflets received from outside were sent by post from Calcutta by Sanjib Chaudhuri, General Secretary, World Congress for World Federation. All the leaflets centered round the theme of re-unification of Pakistan and India. The World Congress is an old organization and protest at Government level against its activities was lodged in 1957. This movement may be traced back to the immediate post- independence period (1947-48) when an organization styled as The Council for the Protection of the Rights of Minorities was sponsored by Mr. J.P. Mitra, Bar-at-Law. Of Calcutta with the identical object of the re-unification of Pakistan and India. Influence of the World Congress for World Federation party in East Pakistan is nil. Some people to whom the leaflets were addressed from Calcutta, themselves made over the papers to the local security authority.
3. Of the 33 internal leaflets and posters, 3 were issued by the East Bengal Liberation Party (E.B.L.P.), 12 by Jana Sangha and the rest came from miscellaneous sources. The E.B.L.P. held that the people of East Pakistan was a separate nation and aimed at complete secession of this province. The party could not achieve the status of any organization and only 5 or 6 persons were behind it. As in the case of World Congress for World Federation, the recipients of this party's papers also made over their finds to the local authorities for necessary action against the sponsors. The party was not also backed by the subversive groups like the Communist Parties of Pakistan and India on the grounds that the move would create a rift among the working class which includes people from both wings. Thus the L.B.L.P. could make no impression either upon the public or upon the subversive political parties.
The organizers of E.B.L.P. were traced out within a short-time, two of them made security prisoners and other action taken with the result that since July, 1960 there has been no activity of this party.
