RAWALPINDI: President Z.A. Bhutto today [March 25] asked Shaikh Mujibur Rahman to protect the life and honour of the Bihari population in Bangla Desh because they were living there for the last 25 years. Replying to a question at his Press Conference today, he said that the question of the Biharis coming to West Pakistan could be discussed when the whole problem was negotiated. Meanwhile, Shaikh Mujib … must protect them, he added. …[T]he President drew attention of the world conscience to the killings and sufferings of the Biharis. The President said when Shaikh Mujibur Rahman was under arrest, a lot of foreign Press and foreign dignitaries spoke about it. “I released the nightingale from the cage but now what is happening to the Biharis in East Pakistan? Have the pens of those journalists dried up?

[News agencies add from Dacca,] About 18,000 Biharis were today [March 25] living in hastily-constructed shacks after being expelled from their homes in the Dacca suburb of Mirpur on Thursday.

[Meanwhile, according to reports from Lahore,] The Supreme Court today [March 25] reserved judgement in the Altaf Gauhar and Malik Ghulam Gilani case. … Mr Altaf Gauhar, Chief Editor of daily “Dawn” and Malik Ghulam Jilani, ex-MNA, are being detained under the Martial Law Regulation No. 78.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022