In mid-June, Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh visited the United States to explain his government's stance on the war in East Pakistan and the refugee crisis.
Washington was Singh's final stop on a 10-day tour of major capitals, including Moscow, London, Paris, Bonn, and Ottawa, undertaken to reinforce the seriousness with which India viewed the situation in East Pakistan.
Singh had meetings with President Richard Nixon, his Adviser Henry Kissinger, and Secretary of State William P Rogers on June 16. He explained that India believed a political approach to the East Pakistan problem was necessary to restore confidence, and they would not accept a civilian regime consisting of break-away elements of the Awami League not representative of Prime Minister-elect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then kept in Pakistan jail.
He added that there was scope for the Pakistani military junta to select the right course to maintain the unity of Pakistan. India did not advocate any particular political solution, which might be autonomy under the six points, federation, confederation, or independence. “This is up to Pakistan to decide upon, but India does wish to end conflict which both weakens Pakistan and causes refugee burden for India,” the minister said.
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Two days later, Pakistani President General AM Yahya Khan wrote a letter to Nixon seeking his attention to the rapidly mounting threat to peace and security in the sub-continent as Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her cabinet ministers were making blistering remarks that “amount to a threat of war”.
Through the constant repetition of threats, Indian leaders might succeed in creating an atmosphere and mood in their country that could inevitably lead to conflict. “In recent days, the Indian army has indulged in numerous aggressive activities from across the border and there are confirmed reports of increasing concentration of Indian forces. There have also been reports by neutral observers of establishment of camps in India to train saboteurs to infiltrate into East Pakistan,” he said.
Gandhi was “determined to exploit the presence of displaced persons in India to aggravate a tense situation and justify military intervention in East Pakistan”, he claimed.
Gen Yahya also alleged that Gandhi was “not willing to permit them to return to Pakistan, except in circumstances of her own choosing. I am confident that your advice to her, not to compound our difficulties, will make a profound difference to the prevailing situation”.
He mentioned that his government had associated with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, to advise and assist in implementing the return of refugees. Prince Sadruddin visited some of the reception centres built to welcome returning displaced persons. The UN was also planning to make arrangements for relief and rehabilitation within East Pakistan.
He said he would do more for the displaced persons if only India stopped discouraging and hindering their return.
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“It is most unfortunate that this humanitarian question should be cynically turned into political propaganda by India, and that the Indian Government should use the problem of the displaced persons, as an instrument of pressure on Pakistan to impose a political government of Indian choice in East Pakistan. No government could yield to such blackmail,” he told Nixon.
President's Assistant Henry Kissinger received the letter on June 19 and summarized it in a July 2 memorandum. He wrote that the letter was intended to make certain that Pakistan's "side of the story" was being heard in Washington in the wake of Singh's visit.
“Like the Indian presentation, it is a brief for a position, and the truth probably lies somewhere between the two,” Kissinger observed.
War situation
During this time, the Pakistani military junta was carrying out genocide under "Operation Searchlight" on its eastern front to suppress a Bengali struggle for liberation.
The targeted killings of Bengalis, especially AL men and Hindus, in Dhaka and other towns by the military and their local collaborators led to an exodus of refugees to India. At the same time, many youths crossed the border for guerrilla training.
This angered Pakistani military ruler, General AM Yahya Khan. On May 22, he said the refugees could come back, but in the three weeks since then, an additional two million crossed into India, taking the official tally to 5,923,439. Around 90% of the refugees were Hindus.
Gen Yahya also claimed he was ready to accept part of the Six-Point Charter of the Awami League to reach a political solution and hand over power to a civilian government sans Sheikh Mujib and other top leaders.
On June 8, a Special Military Court-1 in Dhaka convicted Tajuddin Ahmad, Tofail Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, Abdul Mannan, and the editor of the daily Peoples Abidur Rahman on account of treason in their absence. They were sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment and forfeited 50% of their assets.
On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi threatened her counterpart with tough action had he not stopped the flow of refugees, shunned the path of massacre, and chosen a political solution to the crisis by freeing Sheikh Mujib.
The tension escalated in late May when the US anticipated that a war could break out between the South Asian neighbours when its ally Pakistan would not survive more than a few weeks if attacked on the east and west fronts.
At that time, the Nixon administration asked India to exercise restraint and threatened aid cuts, and made sure Gen Yahya was happy. He was helping the US restore diplomatic ties with China.
For example, a week after the Indian foreign minister met with Nixon in Washington, The New York Times on June 22 reported that two Pakistani freighters were preparing to sail with cargos of military equipment for Pakistan. State Department officials maintained that no export licenses for military equipment had been issued since March 25.
The Embassy in New Delhi reported that news of the arms shipments had shocked the Indian government and prompted angry scenes in both houses of parliament. On June 27, the Indian Embassy delivered a note to the Department of State formally protesting the shipments and urging that steps be taken to prevent the shipments from reaching Pakistan.
