Bethberia, East Pakistan, Nov 12
Indian and Pakistan troops are today massed opposite each other along the border as East Bengal refugees continue to cross into India, often within earshot of mortar fire.

I travelled to this area of East Pakistan hamlets and watched about 400 refugees cross into India in about three hours.

Most of them came tram the Suder sub-division of Barisal district, deep in the heart of East Pakistan. They included a batch of 48 young Mukti Bahini (Freedom Force) fighters, who said they had led a group of more than 1,000 of their people on a trek from Barisal. They took 13 days to cover 155 miles.

They also said they had made the journey to plead with the self-proclaimed Bangla Desh Government in Calcutta for more ammunition.

Mortar fire pounded at intervals of about a minute to the east. An East Pakistan guide said West Pakistan troops were within five miles of Bethberia, which is part of a Mukti Bahini “liberated area” of 100 square miles.

Bethberia was reached from Hariharpur, an Indian border village, which is about three miles north of the town of Bagdah. Bagdah itself is 78 miles north-east of Calcutta in Bongaon subdivision, one of the main target areas in India for fleeing East Pakistanis.

The leader of the Mukti Bahini group, Mr Mafizul Islam, a student, said the Razakars (a para-military force recruited in East Pakistan) and the Pakistan army were making sweeps on villages in Suder sub-division at intervals of about three days.

“They are killing all the young men”, he said. “They don't ask questions whether you are Hindu or Muslim. What matters is whether you are a Bengali.

“We have plenty of arms, most of them captured from the Pakistan Army”, he said. “What we are running short of is ammunition.” He said he was part of a Mukti Bahini corps of about 410 men and that there were about 6,000 Mukti Bahini in action throughout Barisal.

Mr Prafulla Nag, an elderly Hindu cultivator whose family was in the group, said the Razakars and Pakistan Army were “taking away our women and looting and burning the villages”. He said the attacks usually followed night operations by the Mukti Bahini.

Refugees from other districts also spoke of villages being burnt, women abducted and young men killed, sometimes by being buried alive.

I reached Bagdah only after a two-day wait at Calcutta for an official permit. Government policy, despite Mrs Gandhi's recent assertion in Washington that all journalists are free to travel without restrictions in border areas, is that permission must be obtained to approach border districts.

Mr K. K. Naskar, a magistrate in Bongaon who is in charge of refugee relief, said refugees were entering the sub-division at a rate of 3,500 a day.

Latest Indian Government figures put the refugee influx round the East Pakistan border at more than 9,600,000.—Reuter.