DACCA: With the departure of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan from East Pakistan, political observers in Dacca today [March 23] assessed the “psychological swing-over for the better” on the part of both the majority and minority communities of the province as the most outstanding contribution of his five-day “peace-plus-fact finding” mission. Symbolic of the general reaction to the Prime Minister’s tour was a remark by a top-ranking source to the effect that “if similar balanced statements of facts were forthcoming from Bharati leaders, this critical problem could be solved in less than the time our Prime Minister stayed in this province”.

During his stay in East Pakistan, highlighted by the growing inter-Dominion tension over the minorities, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan reassured the province’s over a million Hindus of an “honourable and peaceful living”... . Impartial observers here agreed with the Prime Minister’s diagnosis that the present nervous tension noticeable among the minorities could be checked only by stopping “irresponsible” elements in Bharat from talking war. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2025