LONDON: Indian Communist and left wing parties are split over the attitude towards Pakistan following a declaration by the militant Naxalites that East Pakistan crisis was a result of “Imperialist conspiracy against China”. A report from Calcutta in newspaper, “The Times” yesterday [April 24] said: “The Naxalites of West Bengal have decided to oppose the independence movement in East Pakistan led by Shaikh Mujibur Rahman’s followers. Naxalite posters denouncing the ‘upheaval’ as an ‘Imperialist conspiracy against China’ are appearing on the walls in several parts of Calcutta.”

Reporting that Mohammad Toha’s Marxist groups have broken away from the anti-Pakistan movement, “The Times” report stated that “they maintain that the main contradiction is not between East and West Pakistan but between feudalism and oppressed classes in East Pakistan itself”. — Correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Lahore,] Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, said ... that his deputies asking for transfer of power could not do so without his pre-knowledge.

He was asked by a correspondent on his arrival at the Lahore airport from Karachi whether he was in agreement with the demand of his deputies that power should be transferred to the elected representatives of the people.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2021