DACCA: Addressing a public meeting in Sylhet this afternoon [March 20], the Prime Minister, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan, said there was no cause for panic to the minority community in East Pakistan. Islam was the greatest guarantee of protection, he emphasised. He added that it would be in the interests of the minority community to stay in Pakistan, and those who instigated them to leave their homes were, in fact, inviting them to ruin. But, if in spite of every assurance of protection they wanted to leave, they were free to do so.

The Prime Minister called upon Muslims to look upon the minorities as a sacred trust. He recalled the Quaid-i-Azam’s pledge, the fulfilment of which was the moral duty of every Pakistani.

Referring to the refugees … driven out of their homes in Bharat, the Prime Minister said that Pakistanis should afford them every help… . Besides these moral obligations, it was the duty of every Pakistani to be ready to make all possible sacrifices for the defence of the country which, in the short period of two and a half years, had won a prominent place among the nations of the world.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025