Dacca, Thursday morning.— Pakistan claimed that three Indian battalions, supported by tanks and artillery, lost 74 dead and nearly 130 wounded when, they were repulsed early today by Pakistan forces at Belonia in the Noakhali district of East Pakistan.

Other Pakistan reports said that the Indians lost 28 dead in six further attacks into East Bengal.

Pakistan radio in Karachi said that the Indian force at Belonia was of brigade strength, consisting of two regular battalions and a battalion of “Indian agents”.

The Indian offensive opened with heavy shelling. More than a thousand shells were fired into the area in an hour.

The other offensives reported by Pakistan included four attacks in the Sylhet, Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts.

Bonn. Nov 10.— Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, said today that she feared Pakistan would try to annex a section of western India to compensate for the possible loss of East Pakistan. She said that her troops would continue to guard Indias western border, otherwise “there is no way we can really and adequately defend our country”.

Addressing more than 2,500 people at the invitation of the University of Bonn, Mrs Gandhi said: “India believes that war does not solve problems. But we cannot leave our border unprotected in the meantime, especially as all the news from Pakistan states that since they are bound to lose East Bengal, why should they not grab a piece of the west?”

Referring throughout to the eastern region of Pakistan as “East Bengal”. Mrs Gandhi spoke of a “rising nationalism” in the area and declared that “the people of East Bengal want to decide their destiny by themselves”,—Agence France Presse and Reuter.