from the past pages of dawn: 1971: fifty years ago: Mrs Gandhi's war threat - Newspaper
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi warned Pakistan yesterday [May 18] India “is fully prepared to fight if a situation is forced on us”. Simultaneously, Indian envoys were reported to have alerted London and Paris that India will be forced to act in its national interest in the face of the “increasing numbers from East Bengal”. The envoys were acting on instruction from New Delhi in the wake of an Indian Note to Pakistan delivered recently. The Note said that the growing tide of refugees, now estimated at over 2.6 million, was “leading to a threat to peace in the region”. The...