UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General U Thant will pursue his efforts to station UN representatives on both sides of the India-East Pakistan border despite India’s negative response, a UN spokesman said yesterday [Aug 5]. Pakistan has accepted the plan. US Secretary of State William Rogers, who has been trying to get the UN to establish an international team of more than 150 observers at key points in the area, will confer with U Thant … the spokesman said. … State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey said … the plan is to send a group of experts and civilians to assist in distributing food and otherwise relieving the plight of the refugees. As of yesterday, Mr McCloskey said, the Pakistan Government had not given permission for stationing of UN-sponsored personnel in East Pakistan.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from London,] Prime Minister Edward Heath yesterday [Aug 5] rejected a plea in parliament to meet President Yahya Khan in order to press for the release of Sheikh Mujib…. The suggestion came from former Labour Minister, Mr John Stonehouse, who said Sheikh Mujib’s release would facilitate a political settlement in East Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2021