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Niazi wants truce,India wants surrender
Dacca begs for a Conditional Ceasefire : India stresses Unconditional Surrender

DEC 15 : New Delhi: In a significant development that occurred today, the Pakistani Army Commander in East Pakistan. Lt Gen A A K Niazi, had informed the United States Consul General in Dhaka that he was willing to accept a ceasefire and transfer of power under certain conditions.

Gen Niazi has informed in his message that the Pakistan government is willing to stop fighting and give power to the Interim Government of Bangladesh if i. All Pakistani armed forces are allowed to regroup in designated areas agreed mutually ii. Safety of all West Pakistani people settled in East since 1947 is guaranteed, iii. A guarantee against all those who had helped the adminsitration in Dhaka since March 71 is guaranteed.

He had expressed his willingness to abide by whatever resolution the Security Council will take in this regard.

This ceasefire offer was relayed to New Delhi by the US Government through its embassy in New Delhi. Apparently the Consul General had sent the ceasefire offer to his officials in Washington.

In reply to the offer of Ceasefire, the Indian Government had rejected the idea of conditional ceasefire. Sources in Delhi have confirmed that India will settle for "nothing less than the unconditional surrender of all forces in East Pakistan".

New Delhi's position became apparent when the Indian Army Commander Gen Manekshaw sent a communication addressed to Gen Niazi to stop the fighting and order his forces to surrender to Indian troops.

In the communication, Gen Manekshaw said since Dhaka had indicated its willingness to stop fighting, He expects them to order all the forces in thier command to surrender to Indian Troops.

In return, all uniformed soldiers of West pakistan including Military, Para Military, and Police personnel will be treated according to the Geneve Conventions. "The

sick and wounded will be given proper treatment, the dead will be given decent burials." said the message. It is known in East Pakistan, that the West Pakistani troops have been retreating leaving behind their dead and wounded. It was left to the Indian Army to do take care of the wounded and the dead.

To give crediblity to the good faith, Gen Manekshaw indicated that the Indian Government had decided to implement a ceasefire of all Air Operations in the Eastern Sector from 1700 hours today till 0900 tomorrow morning

There was also a not so veiled threat to resume aerial bombardment and the fighting on ground if the West Pakistani forces do not respond to this surrender offer. A radio link has been activated with frequencies 6605KHz by day and 3216 KHz by night. The West Pakistani forces were instructed to restore communications and use this channel immediately

The offer for the ceasefire comes even as Indian Government troops are closing in on the ground at Dacca. It is generally understood that the options for Dacca are limited, which was made apparent by the ceasefire offer to the UN a couple of days back by Maj Gen Farman Ali. This was later retracted. Today's request for a ceasefire has signalled that the resistance in Dhaka is crumbling and it is a matter of days before we will see a Bangladesh government.