As you undoubtedly know a terrible war is at the moment raging in what was once East Pakistan, now BanglaDesh. The war was unleashed on March 25, 1971, by the military dictatorship headed by General Yahya Khan and the Pakistan Army has carried out a reign of terror, resorted to mass killings of hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians in the cities and villages of our war-torn land.
It is only too easy these days to use the word "genocide", but we can inform you that the massacres in Eastern Bengal more than justify its use. Unarmed men, women and children have been mowed down in cold blood by those who talk in terms of Muslim brotherhood", Their only crime was that they were Bengalis, In Dacca, the capital city, the Army killed 10,000 students, teachers and workers in an attempt to destroy the political beart of the Bengal national movement, durine its first attack. Thousands more have died since them, while millions have been driven out of Banglu Desh and are dying today of cholers and starvation in refugee camps in West Bengal. We do not need to tell you, friends, of what life in a refugee camp is like. The experiences of the Palestinian Arab masses after their expulsion by Zionism bear cloquent testimony to the reality. At first the Army tried to conceal its brutalities from the eyes of the world by imposing a stringent censorship and expelling all the foreign correspondents, but as terror-stricken people began to flee the country, the news of the widespread massacte was revealed. Today in the eyes of all those who hate oppression, the perpetrators of this unparalleled tragedy. the Yahya Khan military dietatonhip is guilty of crimes againat humanity Friends, allow us to briefly explain to you the background to the present crisis. A glance at the geography of Pakistan will show you that the people of this country are living in two different parts separated from each other by 1,000 miles of foreign territory. Of the entire population of Pakistan, over 56% a total of 75 million people, predominantly Muslims lived in Eastern Pakistan. They had agroed to a soparate Muslim homeland only on the basis that it would be a loose federation of two autonomous states, but from the very beginning the Bengals nation was discriminated against, both politically and economically. The entire political history of Pakistan has been dominated by a conspiracy hatched by the feudal landlords, big business interests and the Army in West Pakistan, to prevent the Bengali people from exercising their rights. Time and time again the 89-year-old peasant leader, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, who has a fantastic record of struggle against British imperialism, warned the West Pakistani leaders that unless they mended their ways the East Pakistani masses would explode, These warnings were disregarded, The Muslim peasants who were promised that Pakistan would be a "poor man's paradise discovered that a small coterie of landlords, newly-emerging industrialists and bureaucrats dominated their entire existence.
In 23 years of its existence the vast wealth of the country came to be concentrated in the hands of 22 West Pakistani families. Today they control 85% of banking, 90% of insurance business. Trade and commerce are largely controlled from the Western wing. The merchant navy has its headquarters at Karachi and the resources of East Bengal were used to finance industrial development in West Pakistan. Till 1968-69 more than half of Pakistan's exports were dependent on East Bengal and yet of the total foreign aid received by Pakistan, 80% was used up in West Pakistan As the economic disparity grew between the two parts of the country, the attitude of the Bengali people in the East began to harden. They realised that they were no longer a free people and they understood that to free themselves from the colonial regime they napalm to suppress the voice of the 75 million people wanting their liberation. We can assure you that we will not be intimidated and will fight to the last till the invaders are expelled. The liberation struggle in East Bengal is now part of the great revolutionary war that is being waged in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Friends, we know that the Yahya regime has resorted to malicious and false propaganda, particularly it its messages to Arab governments, in an attempt to divert the attention of the poople of the world from their oppressive military operations in East Bengal. We are confident that you will not be deceived by these lies. The Pakistan Army is part of the imperialist-backed SEATO and CENTO pacts, which are directed against the revolutionary movernents in the Middle East; the same Army has participated in the massacre of Palestinian commandos in Jordan and today helps the reactionary rulers in the Arab Gulf to oppress the peasant masses in that region. So in essence we are facing a common enemy and are part of the same struggle.
Recently the militants engaged in the struggle formed a National Liberation Front, headed by Maulana Bhashani, to unite the progressive forces waging the war of liberation. In the name of this Front we appeal to you to extend the solidarity of all oppressed peoples and support the struggling masses of BanglaDesh.
LONG LIVE THE SOLIDARITY BETWEEN THE BENGALI AND ARAR MASSES! LONG LIVE THE NATIONAL LJBERATION FRONT!
FOR AN INDEPENDENT AND SOVEREIGN PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC BANGLADESH!
Honor hr tha Ranaidao Mar The West Pakistanis in Solidarity with Bengal (WPSB) group based in London has started the regular publication of a broadsheet in Urdu, designed to explain to West Pakistani workers in Britain und at home the real issues involved in the VICTORY TO THE NLF FOR A LIBERATED EAST BENGAL FOR A UNITED SOCIALIST BENGAL excerpt from a New York Times editorial to try and accelerate their campaign of slander and cilification against our comrode Tarig All Por the benefit of readers we are reprinting the complete editorial so that comrades can appreciate why the Workers Press gets so infuriated. -Publirhed esery day by The New Jark Times Company