LAHORE: Four hundred and thirty-eight sick and wounded POWs, thin and weak due to under-nourishment and inadequate medical facilities in Indian camps, but resolute and confident, arrived here today [July 11] via the Wagah border. The repatriates include 54 civil internees. The rest belong to the Armed Forces and Police, including 15 Army of ficers and one each of Air Force and Navy.

First to enter the motherland was Lt-Col Akram Mughal and the last, an old civilian, Khuda Bakhsh. A large number of people standing on either side of the entire route from Wagah border to C.M.H. [Combined Military Hospital] raised welcome slogans and showered flower petals on the returning POWs. They had also hung banners at various points inscribed with slogans lauding the repatriates` sacrifices and perseverance. News agencies [Meanwhile, as reported by our staff reporter from Karachi,] President Z.A. Bhutto ... announced his Government`s decision to authorise the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to arrange for the priority repatriation of another 5,000 Bengalis without insisting on a prior assurance of reciprocity by Bangladesh.