KARACHI: “The fear in the mind of minority community was not due to any real danger,” the Prime Minister, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan, told the nation in a speech broadcast from Radio Pakistan, Dacca … last night [March 22]. Giving impressions of his five-day study tour of East Pakistan, he said he was much distressed to see members of the minority community leaving their homeland. He assured them that the Pakistan Government would do their very best to rehabilitate all displaced members … though they would not stop them from leaving East Pakistan if they so desired… .

The Prime Minister, referring to the refugees from Bharat, said that some idea of the measure of atrocities perpetrated upon the Muslims of West Bengal and Assam could be had from the fact that up till 2,50,000 Muhajireen from these two provinces alone had been registered in East Pakistan. … At present, not only in West Bengal but also in some other Bharati provinces the Muslims were being subjected to … oppression. They were being forced to live a life of extreme degradation and penury and they had to come to Pakistan to save their lives and honour. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2025