JESSORE, EAST PAKISTAN, December 8.‹ Jubilant crowds
poured into streets today to shout Bangla Desh slogans
and cheer conquering Indian troops.

Out came the red, green and gold flags they had
concealed in their homes and back into town came the
womenfolk who had fled to villages deep in the paddy
fields in fear Or Pakistani soldiers.

The Indian army entered Jessore yesterday after a
lightning thrust which splintered the Pakistani forces
and put them to flight.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers thundered past rows
of shabby rundown shops, most of them locked and
shuttered.
Turbaned Sikhs and brown-faced little Gurkha riflemen
mingled with the crowd as cheerleaders led them in their
chant of "Joi Bangla!" - Long live Bengal!

For the survivors of Jessore, an independent Bangla Desh
at last had become more than a cherished dream.

Out in the streets, too, were the Mukhti Bahini
nationalist guerrillas who have waged an eight-month war
of sabotage and ambush against President Yahya Khan's
army.

Modern automatic rifles, supplied by India, were slung
over their shoulders, and in their secret camps in the
woods and banana groves they had mortars and light
machine guns.

They played a minor role in the battle Or Jessore, but
there was a swagger in their walk as they enjoyed the
day of triumph.

Maj.. Gen.. Dalbir Singh, commander of the 9th Division
which captured the town, said his troops entered almost
unopposed.

The Rev. Antonio Alberton, a Roman Catholic missionary
priest, said the Pakistanis fled Jessore in panic loading
their belongings and families in trucks and speeding off
to the south.

Asked if he was cooperating with the local guerrillas,
Gen. Singh replied: "The Mukhti Bahini listen to me.
They shot two people in town and I told them they will
not shoot anyone else. I told them they can do that sort
of thing when they have their Bangla Desh"

All the way to the Indian border. 18 miles to the west.
crowds turned out to greet the first party of foreign
newsmen to visit Jessore since its capture.

For a few short weeks last spring. Jessore was in the
hands of popular forces in revolt against Rawalpindi's
rule. A fire engine with clanging bell met newsmen at
the Petrapole border post then to race them to town.
This time, the Indian army provided the transport.

Shattered villages scarred the route. On the railroad
that once linked India and Pakistan a rusting signal
stood at "stop." Lines of Pakistani bunkers and
breastworks were abandoned in neglected fields They had
been given up without a fight.

Indian sappers carved out new tracks to avoid bridges
blown up by the retreating Pakistanis.

A five-span concrete bridge at Jhingargacha was wrecked.
A new bridge resting on rubber pontoons already had been
flung across the river and the Indian military traffic
was rumbling across it.