Background: Part of the border between India and East Pakistan follows the River Sonai. When Visnews cameraman Prem Prakash visited the area yesterday (Wednesday), he found a trickle of refugees crossing the river from the Pakistan side on one of the local unpowered ferry boats.

The cameraman reported that the self-styled refugees were actually young men entering India in search of aid for the East Pakistan independence struggle.

Indian Border Security men patrol the riverside to prevent Indian sympathisers crossing into Pakistan. Apart from this, life goes on as usual.

Crossing into Pakistan, Prem Prakash found an equally peaceful scene at the nearby village of Garkhali, but was told most of the younger men had gone to join the volunteer forces, and men of the East Pakistan Rifles had also left the area to join the fighting deeper inside Pakistan.