Washington Star/Evening Star

CALCUTTA, INDIA.-The Bangla Desh forces fighting with
the Indian army against the Pakistan army are composed
of diverse element. united for the moment by passionate
hatred .

They include middle-class lawyers from small towns of
East Pakistan who formed the core of the Awami League,
the political party that won 72 percent of the vote in
the region last December, soldiers of the Bengal
Regiment and the border police, the East Pakistan
Rifles, who defected en masse when the army crackdown on
regional nationalism began March 25, students with
vaguely radical ideas and youthful hotheadedness, and
other Bengalis .

Their only common political viewpoint is the desire to
rid their homeland of what they consider to be a long
period of colonial exploitation by West Pakistan and now
the brutal repression by an alien army of the West
Pakistani elite.

DIFFERENCES SUBMERGED

Widely varying political attitudes on questions other
than independence for Bangla Desh have been temporarily
submerged in the common struggle.

The unifying figure in East Pakistani politics has been
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. To all incredible extent he
personally came to symbolize Bengali grievances and
hopes and his Awami League focused both these elements
into a powerful political force.

Thoughtful Bengalis now say that Rahman remains even in
a West Pakistani prison-the only real hope of keeping
Bangla Desh forces united. And should independence be
achieved, it will only be a question of time before
political fragmentation comes even if Rahman should lead
the new nation.

In Rahman's shadow, no other strong leaders developed in
the Awami League. "There is only a third-line leadership
behind him, without any second line," one Awami League
member commented.

The most prominent of these is Syed Nazrul Islam, 46,
who is now the acting president of the Peoples Republic
on Bangla Desh in the absence of Rahman. A lawyer from
Mymensingh, he had led the party during the earlier
imprisonments of Rahman.

The prime minister is Tajuddin Ahmed, also 46. As a
student leader of East Pakistani agitations against the
domination from West Pakistan shortly after the country
was formed in 1947, he took his law degree while in
jail.

The other three cabinet members are Khandaker Moshtaque
Ahmed, 53, in charge of foreign affairs, Finance
Minister Mansoor Ali also 53, and Kamruzzaman, 45 who is
responsible for home affairs, relief and rehabilitation.
All are lawyers.

GOALS OF REPUBLIC

The goals of the republic which they declared after
March 25 include a "socialistic pattern of economy." But
they are conservative people and the Awami League
generally has a cautious middle of the road attitude.

Their statement of goals throws doubts on how far they
would be prepared to go to achieve economic equality in
the badly overpopulated agricultural region. It
specifies that there will be no land tax on holding up
to 8 acres-which is a very large amount in the rice
lands economy of the region.

Many international economists feel one basic reason for
the failures of underdeveloped agricultural countries to
bring rapid economic progress has been the refusal of
middle class politicians running them to hurt their own.
personal interests by taxing agriculture adequately.

The Awami League position on this might be challenged
eventually by some of the leftist elements which have
failed to show any significant popular strength in
elections but nonetheless loom importantly in the
region.

CONSULTATIVE PANEL

These include leftists oriented toward Moscow and toward
Peking and freelance ones India, which is sponsoring the
Bangla Desh cause, has at Soviet instigation forced the
Awami League to accept the creation of a political
consultative committee including Moscow-line leftists.
But Awami Leaguers are determined to keep them at arm's
length.

Probably a more important political element will be
students.

STUDENT VIEWS

In March interviews in Dacca, student leaders like Abdul
Rab and Nurul Alam Siddiqi talked much more seriously
about socialistic answers to the region's economic
problems than Awami League leaders talked. Both Rab and
Siddiqi were leading students and other young people in
guerrilla operations.

These Student guerillas are more emotionally dedicated
to Rahman personally than other elements of the Bangla
Desh movement. But for them Rahman is a figure who only
mirrors what they want.

It is doubtful that Rahman in power as head of
independent Bangla Desh, subject to pressures of
practical politics, would for long be satisfactory to
radical-minded youths.

Members of the East Pakistan Rides, a paramilitary
force, are originally alleged by the Pakistani
government to have been planning mutinies against their
West Pakistani officers shortly after March 25.

SLAUGHTER ALLEGED

This was one of the allegations the government used in
its initial efforts to justify its savage crackdown on
East Pakistan. Another allegation was that tens of
thousands of non-Bengali residents of the East had been
slaughtered by Awami League terror before March 25 which
the government had to halt.

Both these charges have been quietly dropped by the
government, although they still echo in Pakistani
propaganda.

In fact EPR men seemed then to be essentially non-
political. But they are Bengalis, and after the army
attacked them on the night of March 25 as part of
breaking all Bengali resistance, they fought back. Most
fled to fight again.

They were among the men whom the Indian army organized
into Bangla Desh military units.

Another large element, also essentially non-political
patriots, are troops from the Bengali regiment.