KARACHI: Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, yesterday [July 12] categorically denied a BBC report that he said in Iran that the Government should start negotiations for a compromise with the defunct Awami League leaders. Talking to newsmen in Karachi last evening, Mr Bhutto said that there had been no question and there never would be the question of talking with the secessionist elements of the outlawed Awami League. He said that his point of view was that with members of the Awami League who were not involved in the secession movement talks could be held. This was what he had said in an interview with an Iranian paper, Mr Bhutto told the Press. — Agencies

5000 men sent to border

[Meanwhile, as reported by a staff correspondent from Rawalpindi,] The Indian Government has recently shifted about five thousand more personnel of its Border Security Force from other parts of the country to West Bengal — leading to an impression here that it might be planning a fresh move to create more trouble at the East Pakistan borders.

Besides enlarging the existing concentration of Indian forces in the area, these personnel may also be used for building a higher level of tension along the East Pakistan borders. A good number of infiltrators that India had sent for sabotage activities in East Pakistan following the action against anti-national elements there, were drawn from the Border Security Forces. …

Talks on ML merger

[A staff correspondent from Lahore reports,] Parleys centring around an assessment of the prospects of the merger of the three factions of the Muslim League started here … when leaders of the CML and the Qayyum League [met] and [had] detailed discussions with the Convention League chief, Mr Fazlul Quader Chowdhury. … They are believed to have discussed the desirability and urgency as well as formula of unification of the group. … Mian Mumtaz Daultana has also indicated to his lieutenants that he can be available at Lahore for a meeting with Mr Fazlul Quader, if and when necessary. The position is that if the present parleys make a headway, there could be a meeting of the top leaders.

Coup ringleaders executed

[Agencies report from Rabat,] The principal ringleaders of the abortive military coup against King Hassan II were executed by a firing squad early Monday [July 12], official sources reported. King Hassan told a news conference yesterday [July 11] that the officers who led the bloody military coup would all be dead by sundown Monday night. Today the King, accompanied by King Hussein of Jordan … attended the funeral inside camp Moulay Ismail of the victims of the Skhirat Palace shoot-out.

The files for July 1946 and the first 10 days of August 1946 are missing from our archives. The ‘Seventy-five years ago’ section will resume from Aug 11.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021