THIS refers to the segment `From the past pages of Dawn` (March 29). Excerpts from an editorial published on March 29, 1946, talked about the phenomenal victoryin the Bengalelecdons of the Muslim League that had been championing the idea of partition of Bengal. Anti-partition candidates, like the Nawab of Dhaka and another political heavyweight of the time, Syed Nausher Ali of Jessore, were `trounced`.

Many shades of irony could be seen in the said excerpt when read with the accompanying piece, which related to a report carried on March 29, 1971, just 25 years after the Bengal elections. Its title, `Calm prevails`, is a reference to a broadcast by Radio Pakistan of a statement by the then chief martial law administrator of East Pakistan, Gen Tikka Khan.

As the events later that year proved, that statement was a pack of lies. Calm did not return to the region until much af ter the blood-soaked transformation of East PakistantoBangladesh.

Just three days earlier, Gen Yahya Khan had ordered a crackdown on Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after having failed to browbeat him into dropping his demands for maximum autonomy for East Pakistan encapsulated in the `six points` upon which the Awami League had run the election campaign and had `trounced` all opposing candidates, except two.

Gen Yahya had gone to Dhaka to hold talks with Mujib, who had stood firm on his demands. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had gone there too. How Bhutto saw the military crackdown was obvious from his statement: `Thank God, Pakistan has been saved`.

Was that Bhutto statement wrong? Perhaps, not. The `truncated` Pakistan was indeed safe of which he took charge as Yahya took the fall.

It is safe to say that a large number of voters who helped the Muslim League `trounce`its opponents in the 1946 Bengal elections would have been still alive in East Pakistan during the 1970 elections in which the Awami League won with a landslide. It is obvious how most of them voted in 1970. I wonder how they felt about Yahya`s crackdown and Tikka`s false statement of `calm` on which Radio Pakistan reported.

Siddique Malik Louisville, USA