JESSORE, Pakistan, April 2 —Resistance forces were holding on today in this East Pakistani city.

They conceded, however, that their control was shaky, with 800 West Pakistani soldiers entrenched in the out skirts. This force has already made one ground attack, killing scores.

The resistance forces said that reports from other parts of this eastern wing of the country indicated an equally tenuous control of dozens of communities.

The Pakistani Government, which has been saying for days that the independence movement was defeated and that Government troops were in control of the province, acknowledged today that there was trouble “in several parts of East Pakistan.”

It said through its official radio in West Pakistan that “miscreants” had been “trying to harass and terrorize innocent and peaceful citizens,” and it announced that the martial‐law authorities in the province were warning the people “to refuse to shelter such elements and immediately report their presence.”

The Pakistani Government expelled all foreign correspondents from the province last weekend, making first‐hand reporting on the situation in the province impossible. But news men have begun entering the border regions from India. Jessore is 25 miles east of the border and 80 miles southwest of Dacca, the provincial capital.


All shops were closed here today, and with mortar shells falling on the city sporadically through the day few people ventured from their homes. Bullet holes pitted a number of buildings, but damage in the center of town was not extensive.

Refugees carrying their belongings in bundles on their heads were deserting the city, only recently a home for about 25,000, and were heading for the Indian border.

“There have been many casualties, but we shall fight on until the end,” said Capt. Abdul Halim of the East Pakistan Rifles, a militia force supporting the independence movement of Sheik Mujibur Rahman.

The captain said the Pakistani army would not be able to defeat the 75 million people of East Pakistan.

“They cannot hold out for ever in a hostile land,” he went on. “Eventually we shall starve them to death.”

Meanwhile, the dead of Jessore were being buried today in communal graves. Scores of unarmed men, women and children were killed, resistance leaders said, when some of the Pakistani troops emerged from their positions two nights ago and swept through Jessore.

A column of troops backed by armored cars was said to have destroyed rows of peasant homes. Whole families, resistance leaders said, were killed by machine gun fire as they fled.

Bodies lying in fields and ditches showed evidence of bayonet wounds.

In retaliation, supporters of Sheik Mujib, reportedly rounded up 14 Punjabi merchants, who represented West Pakistani domination to them, and killed them in a field near the city's bus station. A mass grave was being dug for them.

At Captain Halim's head quarters in Jessore, there was much confusion. Neither he nor his officers were prepared to discuss their battle plans, if they exist.

The resistance fighters have few vehicles and little gasoline. Only the men of the East Pakistan Rifles appear to have guns and military discipline. Others were sharpening sticks to join in the fight.

The Pakistani army has perhaps 70,000 troops in the province. Even if the resistance fighters are driven from all the towns, they say, a guerrilla war could go on for years.