TRANSCRIPT: SEQ 2: MR. SAYYID KARIM: "For us Bengali officers in the Pakistan Mission in the United States, it is no longer possible to remain silent spectators to the barbarous actions to the Pakistan government which have turned Bangla Desh it to a land of death and terror. This is our moment of decision. We have decided to join the suffering millions of BanglaDesh who are resisting with their lives the barbarity of the West Pakistan army; who are determined to reduce East Pakistan to ??? colony. The government of Pakistan is now a military junta of West Pakistan desperate to retain its strangle-hold over the country."




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Background: Fifteen East Pakistanis resigned yesterday, August 4 from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington and the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations. The group, which included seven top diplomats also sought political asylum in the United States. They denounced what they termed the "barbarous actions" of their government in East Pakistan and pledged allegiance to the Bangla Desh independence movement. At a press conference, the officers, all Bengalis, accused the Pakistani government of turning East Pakistan into a "land of death and terror". Included in the group of defectors was Mr. Enayet Karim, number two man at the embassy and Mr. Sayyid A. Karim, deputy permanent representative to the U.N. who offered these comments at the presser.