1971-04-09
By Eric Pace
Page: 3
KARACHI, Pakistan, April 8 —The Pakistani Government announced today that it had mounted air strikes on “hostile pockets of armed infiltrators” in East Pakistan and had also raided “roadblocks erected by miscreants.”
The announcement, broadcast throughout Pakistan, was similar to reports made public here last night about air attacks in the northern part of East Pakistan.
The Government denied Indian press reports that its warplanes had used bombs or napalm, and it said there had been “no attack of any description” against any city or populated area.
The announcement gave no casualty figures but reported without elaboration that “a column of nine vehicles which infiltrated into East Pakistan in the Shamshernagar area recently has been totally destroyed by the Pakistani Air Force aircraft.” The area is in the northeastern port of East Pakistan.
The Government said the air force had “taken part in the restoration of law and order” and specified that the warplanes had been used “to destroy roadblocks erected by miscreants and infiltrators which hampered normal movements in East Pakistan.”
The alleged infiltrators were the subject of the latest in a series of protests delivered by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry to the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad. [India has denied the charges of infiltration from her territory.]
Meanwhile, radio and press announcements said that life was returning to normal in the East. An announcement said that the number of commercial airline flights between Dacca and eastern provincial airfields had become more frequent and that more buses had been put into service to meet a growing demand for transportation.