DACCA, East Pakistan, Dec. 1—Despite daily pronouncements of major attacks and heavy fighting, the actual level of combat between Pakistani and Indian troops along the border of East Pakistan appears to be fairly light, with both sides placing more emphasis on the propaganda war than on

News Analysis combat. Official reports of fighting between brigades and battalions have turned out to be brief night encounters between platoons and companies. Major thrusts by Indian units announced by the Pakistani military command in Dacca and Rawalpindi have turned out on inspection and questioning by independent observers and reporters to be minor probes across a few hundred yards.

A highly placed independent observer said that while small infantry probes and artillery barrages took place daily, Indian troops had not yet counterattacked in force.

Resist and Then Fall Back

Indian forces operating with the Bengali guerrillas have probed across the border at a dozen places along the jagged 1,350‐mile border, but Pakistani troops have not tried to push them back in at least half of these. As the Indians have inched forward, the outnumbered and thinly spread Pakistani troops have resisted and then fallen back.

“It's impossible and unnecessary for them to hold the salients,” a knowledgeable analyst explained, “so they're letting the Indians have them and straightening out their lines. If the Indians move in deep enough, they'll be sitting ducks for a flank attack.”

The analyst said the Indian forces, which number about 200,000 men, were also spread thin along the border and, although they outnumber the Pakistanis, were in no position to launch an all‐out thrust.

“They can inch forward, but it doesn't take very many defensive troops to stop any major movement from this configuration,” the analyst added. “They'd have to mass some divisions and they haven't done it so far. And even if they did, there are so many rivers to cross that the Pakistanis could hold them off for weeks, even though they're outnumbered three, four or five to one.”

The most serious Indian push so far has been toward Jessore; the analyst said the Indians could probably take that town if they wanted to. But even the level of fighting there has been greatly exaggerated, he said.

The Indians have built bridge over the Kobadak River on the border and have moved tanks across it. Although two Indian divisions, the Ninth Infantry and the Fourth Mountain, are in the area, only elements of four battalions (perhaps 1,000 men) have actually pushed into Pakistani territory, traversing up to 11,000 yards.

Two nights ago the command reported a brigade‐size attack, which the local Pakistani battalion commander said later consisted of two companies. Otherwise the only activity has been daily exchanges of artillery shells.

The local commander reported that Indian 130‐mm. artillery at the border fired six shells into Jessore City two days ago and that the Indians were using spotter planes to assess artillery damage.

Two squadrons of about 30 tanks of the Indian 45th Cavalry Regiment have taken up positions in Pakistani territory and are used in night probes and daylight shelling. The tanks are a Soviet‐made medium model that is far superior to the Pakistani vehicles, Americanmade M‐24 light tanks that date to the beginning of World War II.

Reports of casualties are also wildly exaggerated, an in formed observer said, but he believes that the Pakistanis, fighting from defensive positions, are inflicting two or three casualties for every one they suffer.

“If you discount about 80 per cent of the claims, you might get a little more realistic picture of what's going on,” he said.

This observer and others re‐ port that the morale of the Pakistani troops has been greatly lifted since the Indian probes started two weeks ago because they are fighting the kind of traditional war they were trained for against Indian regulars, whom they hate, rather than carrying out the frustrating operations against guerrillas in the interior that began last March.