CALCUTTA, India, April 1— Troops from West Pakistan were reported on the offensive today against pockets of resistance in at least nine East Pakistani cities and towns Thousands of civilians were re ported fleeing into the country side.

According to Indian intelligence sources here and monitors along the border, the soldiers, aided by artillery and jet fighter‐bombers, were moving in strength against several district towns where the Bengali independence movement of Sheik Mujibur Rahman had previously claimed control.

For the first time since heavy fighting broke out last week, newspapers in Calcutta, where people are friendly to the East Pakistani cause, were reporting that the East Pakistani forces were “regrouping.”

“That's our way of saying they appear to be in trouble,” one editor commented.

Previously the newspapers of Calcutta had published only re ports of great victories for Sheik Mujib's followers.

Another indication of apparent gains by the Pakistani Army was the second day of silence from the radio stations that had identified themselves as “voices of liberation.”

With all normal news channels still blacked out by tight censorship, independent checks on what is going on in East Pakistan remained impossible. But there has been a change in the tenor of the available reports in the last few days, with accounts of victories for the resistance forces diminishing.

Indian Air Force planes and ground communication centers reported monitoring bombing runs today by Pakistani planes against the district towns of Bogra, Khulna, Rangpur and Dinajpur. Army troops sent to Dacca, the East Pakistani capital, were reported to be sweeping through villages on the out skirts.

The town of Comilla, where heavy fighting has been reported, was said to be deserted. Jessore was reported leveled after four days of fighting.

A man who said he had taken part in the fighting on the side of Sheik Mujib's forces told Indian newspapermen at the border that West Pakistani troops had swept through three villages on the outskirts of Jessore and burned them. Clouds of smoke were said to be visible in Kushtia, 20 miles to the north.

A few skirmishes were reported still going on in the port city of Chittagong, and some fighting was also reported in Sylhet, Jakiganj and Mymenshingh.

Ceylon Aid Charged

Despite Ceylonese denials, officials here insist that American‐made C‐130's from West Pakistan were flying troops and arms into East Pakistan at the rate of five or six plane loads a day, refueling in Ceylon. They are prohibited from flying across the 1,000 miles of Indian territory that separate the two wings of Pakistan.

Although the military action in East Pakistan began a week ago, the crisis dates from the beginning of March, when President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the National Assembly, which was to have started drafting a constitution under which the current military Government would give way to civilian rule.

Sheik Mujib's Awami League, which at that time was demanding regional autonomy, would have dominated the assembly, since the league won a commanding majority in elections last December.

The postponement, at the urging of leaders of the assembly minority from West Pakistan, where the central Government is based, touched off strikes in East Pakistan during which the Awami League gradually assumed power. When the army moved last Thursday to reassert the military government's authority, the establishment of Bangla Desh, or Bengal Nation, was proclaimed by the leaders in the East.

Reports of widespread killings by the troops from West Pakistan continue to pour in here, and independent diplomatic sources believe many of them are true. They note that the resistance fighters are so meagerly armed that they would have much difficulty defending their homes and positions against heavily armed troops.