RAWALPINDI: The discovery of an Indian master plan for the invasion of East Pakistan was announced here this afternoon [Oct 11] by an official spokesman. The plan was found in the papers left behind by the Indian Army Brass on the West Pakistan front, provided for a multi-pronged attack on East Pakistan after “overrunning West Pakistan in 72 hours”.

Indian forces were deployed in battle positions around East Pakistan, and some of the specially equipped Mountain Divisions, ostensibly held in reserve for use against China, were actually intended for an assault on East Pakistan.

In preparation for the assault the spokesman said, India had a five-mile attack belt around East Pakistan cleared of all civilians on the pattern of what she had done along the borders of West Pakistan. As a warming-up process, she stepped up her violation of the East Pakistan borders. As a softening-up operation, India bombed several places in East Pakistan and dropped saboteurs in certain areas of the province to prepare for the actual invasion.

The invasion, the spokesman recalled, was to be in implementation of India’s long-standing designs against East Pakistan as publicly proclaimed in the Indian Lok Sabha and through the rabid Calcutta Press. For instance, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia was quoted by ‘The Statesman’ on April 29, 1965 as declaring: “There is no reason why India should not hit Pakistan in East Bengal which is Pakistan’s Achilles Heel.”

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2015

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