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Background: India has begun the mass movement of Pakistan prisoners-of-war out of East Pakistan.

On Tuesday (28 Dec.) more than two thousand of them were taken from the Dacca cantonment by train to the nearby launch landing.

From there they were ferried to ships for the voyage to Calcutta.

Indian officers think it will take about ten days to clear the 30-thousand West Pakistan prisoners-of-war from Dacca.

SYNOPSIS: Pakistan prisoners-of-war....and the beginning of a mass movement of prisoners out of East Pakistan by Indians began the operation on Tuesday. They took 2-thousand Pakistani prisoners by train from the Dacca cantonment to a point near the waterfront.

From there the prisoners were marched down the road to the launch jetty. Smaller groups of prisoners had been moved out of East Pakistan earlier -- but this was the first on a large scale.

Indian officers estimate it will take ten days to move all of the 30-thousand West Pakistan prisoners out of Dacca. This first group comprised mainly air force and navy personnel. An Indian Army spokesman said civilians held in the Dacca cantonment would be the last to move out.

At the landing, Indian soldiers and their prisoners boards launches to take them out to waiting ships -- and the voyage to Calcutta. As this first group moved out, reports from East Pakistan said that India has yet to reach agreement with the new Bangladesh administration on what's to happen to those prisoners viewed by Bangladesh as war criminals. Neither has agreement been reached on the fate of an estimated quarter of a million non-Bengalis who've taken refuge together in two suburbs of Dacca.

What's to happen to Pakistani prisoners when they reach India is not clear. Indian officials say they'll be held "in safe custody."