Yesterdate: This day from Kolkata’s past, October 24, 1971
Telegraph | 24 October 2024
On this day, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi left for a trip to Europe and the US to talk about West Pakistan’s aggressive policies in East Pakistan and the problem of a huge number of refugees fleeing from East Pakistan into India. This led to Mrs Gandhi’s meeting with US President Richard Nixon, famous for not going off well. He did not respond to her appeal to see the problem as international.
The then US national security council head, Henry Kissinger, said Nixon’s comments about the meeting afterwards “were not always printable”.
East Pakistan was liberated from West Pakistan in December that year with India’s help. The new nation was Bangladesh.
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