Sunday,
4th April
10:50 P.M.
I suppose we should have expected it, really. The media is here to bring us all to ruins again. It's not as much their reporting issues to the masses as much their dramatising the issues and events that annoy us. You might as well shut off the daily soaps on the television or the radio, because those are exactly what they are competing with. The news of the East is now spreading panic in the West as well. And really, on what basis was the media claiming that the military is going to take over the country now, anyway?
As for the East, the members of the Bihari community and the Bengali community are fleeing en masse to India, perhaps under the direction of their leaders (who all managed to go under the radar) who might have formed a government in exile by now. The attacks on our officers deployed there are increasing and they are being attacked by the Mukti Fauj, so they must be getting orders from somewhere. What is even worse is that India has now opened the gates at the border in the East (which is a border in only name), which means that it has now formally joined arms with the rebellion.
On the other hand, they have decided to not change the position of battalions at all, because this is by far the safest position we have in our compromised state. Although if a problem occurs, we'd have to move very quickly.
Lt. General Beig is leaving to examine a field exercise from tomorrow, and as Abba is now the senior most personnel, he is to take charge of meetings and other things for the time being.
Also, how hard is it to find a collection of Hindustani Classical music? Very, apparently. I don't understand why, it's not as if it is unpopular even here. I've been haunting the records house in town for the past two weeks to procure a few CDs for Sehmat. The owner said he'd get them from Karachi, because he didn't have any here. I've been trying, over the course of the past few weeks, to get rid of my habit of smoking—something Bhaijaan has not failed to notice, but has not commented upon either. A few of the others also, are equally observant. Or maybe I used to smoke more frequently than I had thought. I'm getting rid of it, anyhow.
Iqbal S.