DACCA, Pakistan, Dec. 22—Leaders of the Bengali exile regime returned to Dacca as heroes today after nearly nine months of exile in India.

Emotional Bengalis hugged and kissed the returning leaders as they stepped from an Indian Air Force plane in the capital of East Pakistan, which they have proclaimed the independent country of Bangladesh.

Thousands crowded the roofs of airport buildings that still bore scars from Indian air strikes in the 15‐day war that ended last Friday.

What had been planned by the Indian army as a dignified welcoming ceremony today fell into chaos. Bengalis pushed and shoved forward to touch Syed Nazrul Islam, the acting president, Tajuddin Ahmed, the prime minister, and Khandker Mushtaque Ahmed, the foreign minister.

[In West Pakistan, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the Bengali regime's president, who had been imprisoned since the beginning of the army crackdown in the East in March, was transferred to house arrest in an undisclosed place, Reuters reported. Page 8.]

During the tumultuous welcome here, an Indian brigadier shouted that the exile leaders “forgot to inspect the guard of honor.” And a Bengali official, pushing his way through the crowd in a vain attempt to restore order, cried: “You're spoiling everything, you're ruining everything.”

Bengali women carrying garlands of marigolds were on hand to greet the leaders but they. were pushed aside in the crush.

Military policemen from the Indian Army pushed at the boisterous crowd and made their whistles shriek. In the confusion, they manhandled some of the returning leaders along with members of the crowd.

Outside the airport, crowds, estimated to total 100,000 lined the streets. But it was almost dark before the motorcade moved away. Some of those who had been waiting fainted and were passed back over the heads of throngs that were 15. persons deep at some points along the route.

A. H. M. Kamaruzzaman, home minister in the Bengali regime and Mohammad Mansoor Ali, the finance minister, were among the other Bengali leaders who returned today.

Mr. Islam has taken the title of acting president presumably in deference to Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the Bengalis leader, who is now held by West Pakistan, and who would be expected to get the top position if he returned here.

There were no indication when the insurgent cabinet would he installed formally as the new government.

Autonomy Was Mujib's Goal

The arrival of the provisional government was a momentous event in the drama of East Bengal, which began March 25 with a Pakistani Army crackdown on supporters of the Awami League. The league, headed by Sheik Mujib, had won a majority in the general election last December after campaigning on a platform of greater autonomy for East Pakistan.

Bengalis who have been parading in the streets of Dacca shouting, “Free Sheik Mujib” are hoping that he will be returned to Dacca as part of an accord involving repatriation of West Pakistani troops and some 20,000 other West Pakistanis held prisoner in the East.

The final act would come with the triumphant return of Sheik Mujib to Dacca.

Mr. Islam told the crowd at the airport that he would do all in his power to gain Sheik Mujib's release. From the airport the Bangladesh leaders rode to Sheik Mujib's house.

A military spokesman said that the Indian Army was hunting a self‐styled “general,” Abdul Kader Siddiqi who was believed to have ordered the public bayoneting of four suspected Pakistani collaborators.

Lieut. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, commander of Indian forces in East Pakistan, has ordered his troops to protect the country's non‐Bengali minorities from reprisals. It was in the non Bengali Bihari community that the Pakistani military regime found most of its collaborators.

The Indian Army is patrolling the Bihari quarters of Dacca and many guerrillas belonging to groups operating independently of the Indian Army have been disarmed. Mr. Ahmed, the Bangladesh Prime Minister, also was reported to have warned guerrilla commanders against taking the law into their own hands.