455 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ১৮৩ ১. নিয়াজীর প্রস্তুতি ডেইলি মেইল ১৪ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১ ২. ইয়াহিয়ার সৈন্য বাহিনীর লজ্জা THE DALLY MAIL, DECEMBER 14, 1971 TIGER IS WAITING FOR THE KELL From Mail Correspondent in Dacca Seated on a shooting stick at a street corner, the chief of Pakistan's Eastern command vowed yesterday to fight for this city to the last man. General A. A. K. Tiger' Niazi made the pledge as the advancing, Indians were reported to be as close as six miles. He said as stragglers from other pans of the country reached Dacca: "It doesn't matter...It's now a question of living or dying and 'we shall fight to the last man." He also scotched any idea of surrender-as demanded in, a fresh appeal by General Sam Manekshaw, the Indian, Chief of Staff." It was General Manekshaw's third call in a week and made to prevent 'unnecessary loss- of life and damage' in the battle for the Pakistan Army's last major stronghold in' the East. The message said, in part: 'Further resistance is senseless. My forces are closing in around Dacca and the garrison is" within range of our artillery. It should be the duty of all to prevent useless shedding of innocent blood.' In the past 24 hours Indian infantry columns have advanced on the city from the North-West, the North and from Narsingdi, 25 miles to the North East, And two battalions of paratroops have been dropped at Tangail, 50 miles to the north-west, and Bhairab Bazaar, 40 miles north-east. John Webb at Khulna; East' Pakistan, reports: Twelve hundred Pakistanis, chased 35 miles down the road from Jessore, are' making a gallant stand at this river port. Survivors of the 107th Infantry Brigade, bottled up in a garrison, have at last slowed the pace of the Indian assault. I sat in a laundry 500 yards from Pakistan gunners yesterday for a briefing on the battle. The improbable temporary field headquarters belonged to Brigadier Sandhu Singh, C.O. of a. Brigade of the Indian 9th Division. Protected The laundry, protected from small-arms fire by a bend in the road was the only concrete building left in the village of Acra which I had reached in a communications jeер.
