CALCUTTA: Bharati troops with fixed bayonets moved tonight [March 27] into Howrah, a densely populated satellite town of Calcutta to cope with disturbances which have claimed 16 lives in the last 48 hours.

Martial law was proclaimed this evening as the `situation continued to deteriorate and went out of the civil authorities` control`.

Martial law covers eight square miles with a population of about half a million on the right bank of the Hooghly River opposite metropolitan Calcutta.

Announcing the imposition of martial law in Howrah a West Bengal Press note admitted: `Brutal murders had been committed in some places and mob attacks on innocent persons had been made in other areas. Assaults had also taken place at several railway stations.` It also spoke of `a great deal of excitement and panic` during the past two days.

The West Bengal Government thought it desirable, the Press note added, that wherever there was a small isolated pocket of Muslims in a particular area, the inhabitants thereof should be collected together and removed to a larger unit where better protection could be arranged. News agencies