DACCA:The SpecialMilitary CourtNo1hassentenced five persons, including prominent leaders of the defunct Awami League, to 14 years` rigorous imprisonment each, and also ordered the confiscation of 50 per cent of their property. They were tried in absentia under Martial Law Regulation No 40 as they failed to appear before the Martial Law authorities concerned as directed. The convicts are: Mr Tajuddin Ahmad of Sat Masjid Road Dacca; Mr Tofail Ahmad of Koralia Post Office, district Bakerganj; Mr Naz Islam of L angal Shimol, of district Mymensingh; Mr Abdul Manan of 110, Shideshwari district Dacca; and Mr Abid Rahman ... resident of Shideshwari Dacca. Agencies [Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Dacca,] Pakistan nationals who had gone over to India during recent disturbances in East Pakistan, have started returning to their homes in large numbers.

[Agencies add from New Delhi,] The cholera epidemic which has killed thousands of displaced persons in India now stretches along the whole of the 1,300-mile West Bengal-East Pakistan frontier, the World Health Organisation announced....

The South East Asian regional office of WHO said the epidemic also penetrates into West Bengal as far as Calcutta....