NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi warned Pakistan yesterday [May 18] India “is fully prepared to fight if a situation is forced on us”. Simultaneously, Indian envoys were reported to have alerted London and Paris that India will be forced to act in its national interest in the face of the “increasing numbers from East Bengal”. The envoys were acting on instruction from New Delhi in the wake of an Indian Note to Pakistan delivered recently. The Note said that the growing tide of refugees, now estimated at over 2.6 million, was “leading to a threat to peace in the region”. The Indian Prime Minister gave the warning from the Himalayan hill station of Ranikhet in Uttar Pradesh state. — Agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Dacca,] The law and order situation in the Indian state of West Bengal has reached pre-election height along with the serious food crisis within the period of one and half months after the formation of a parliamentary Government there. Looting, arson and political murders are taking place almost every day in different parts of in the state, according to ... All-India Radio. … [T]he Government have adopted a policy of asking for food for the so-called refugees from East Pakistan from various international agencies.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2021