LAHORE: President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said here today [Feb 14] that he was working on plan for meeting Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The President also reiterated that Martial Law would be lifted shortly and there should be no misgivings on this score. … The President said it was his promise that Martial Law would be lifted much before the year was out. ... The President said he always stuck to the plans and dates announced by him publicly. He said: “I don’t want to give dates like Yahya Khan and change them time and again.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies and All India Radio in New Delhi,] India will give due consideration to “any request” from President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to hold talks with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a Foreign Office spokesman said today [Feb 14]. But he said: “No request of this nature had been received either directly from Pakistan or through third parties.” ...[T]he official also said that India wanted to release the Pakistan prisoners of war but India cannot afford to send home nearly 1,00,000 trained soldiers, unless Pakistan ended the “state of war with India”.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022