1971-05-22
By Peter Hazelhurst
Page: 4
Calcutta. May 21
The Liberation Front in East Bengal might split into leftist and rightist groups because the Awami League and the Provisional Government are turning down communist volunteers who have attempted to join the military training camps in India, a prominent member of the front told me today.
He said that he and other communists in the front believed that the Awami League was rejecting left-wing volunteers on the instructions of Indian Government officials who fear that any weapons given to the Bengalis might be sent back to West Bengal for Indian Maoists.
My informant said that three types of training camp have been set up in India. The East Pakistan Rifles have set up transit camps near the Bongaon border in the western region and near the eastern border around Agartala, the capital of Tripura.
According to him the East Bengali volunteers are screened at these transit camps and if they pass a physical test they are sent on a six-week training course conducted by the East Pakistan Rifles and Indian instructors.
Potential officers are sent back to Indian military establishments on a six-month training course. "But we find that our supporters are being rejected at the transit camps and if this sort of thing continues the Liberation Army is bound to break up."
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Karachi, May 21.—President Yahya Khan today appealed to "bona fide Pakistan citizens" to return to their homes in East Pakistan.
The President's statement said that India was circulating "'highly exaggerated and distorted " accounts of the events that had led to crossings of the border. He contended that the numbers of people who had crossed into India from East Pakistan had been inflated by adding the unemployed and homeless of West Bengal.—Reuter.
Leading article, Page 13,