পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড).pdf/৭৬০

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724 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ষষ্ঠ খণ্ড শিরোনাম সংবাদপত্র তারিখ Bangladesh Forces Bangladesh 24 September, 1971 Gain Tenacity and Skills Vol. 1 : No. 4 BANGLADESH FORCES ΟΑΙΝΤΕΝΑ ΟΙΤΥ AND SKILLS Bangladesh has organized in less than four months, two branches of its forces-the regular army and the freedom fighters. Although they are new and their number is still small, both branches of the forces have gained considerable tenacity and skill in their operations against the West Pakistan occupation army which inherits a martial tradition of over 200 years and is equipped with sophisticated American and communist arms. Martin Wollacott, a British correspondent, recently accompanied 16 soldiers and 2 officers of Bangladesh in their hunt by boat for demoralized West Pakistan army. Excerpted in the Washington Post, September 18. The warrant officer's flashlight as he passed down the line of men illuminated 16 pairs of hare feet, three old Bren guns, three battered British two-inch mortars and a kit bag with a dozen mortar bombs still in their sealed cardboard tubes. The captain, a tall young man with spectacles who used to be an officer in the Pakistan Army Service Corps, emerged from his tent wearing a striped sports shirt and the long cloth skirt Bengalis call a lungi. The warrant officer saluted him. The captain then addressed the men in Bengali. The English words "discipline," "disciplined force," "no smoking" occurred several times. He ended by saying in English: "I want to see quick firing on target and quick dispersal" The warrant officer saluted again, and the 18 men, with two correspondents trailing behind, set off from the camp, in a border area about 55 miles northeast of Calcutta. Facing his company, the captain had said earlier, were two battalions of the Pakistani army, both from the Frontier Force Regiment. The night's patrol was what is called a "jitter party" and was aimed at disturbing the sleep and peace of mind of a company of Pakistan troops at a place called Maslia, on a bend of the River Kapotakshi, about four miles inside East Bengal. About a mile from the camp, the party climbed aboard three large country boats. Somebody put one of the mortars down on my hand, there was much clicking of safety catches, and in spite of the captain's strictures, several men lit cigarettes. The boats began to slide across the wafer-more like a huge and convoluted lake than a river now, because it is swollen by flooding. Starlight gave a clear view of distant tree lines.