DACCA: The East Pakistan Premier, Mr Nurul Amin, said here today [March 10] that the communal disturbances in East Pakistan were the direct result of `continuous and widespread disturbances in West Bengal and Assam`. In a 5,500-word statement read in his absence ... Mr Nurul Amin made a `factual survey` of the communal incidents which have recently taken place in Calcutta, other parts of West Bengal and in Assam and the developments that have followed in this Province.

He emphasised that until the recent disturbances in Dacca and certain parts of East Pakistan, the whole of the Province had enjoyed an `unparalleled record of communal peace and harmony ever since partition`.

Tracing the origin of the communal disturbances ... Mr Nurul Amin recalled the activities of the so-called Council for the Protection of Minorities and the Hindu Mahasabha whose leaders had made inflammatory speeches repudiating the partition of India and advocating the forcible annexation of Pakistan to restore Akhand Bharat; and the campaign of deliberate vilification of Pakistan in general, and East Pakistan in particular, which started towards the end of December last... .