WORKERS ON THE MOVE IN PAKISTAN from Abdul Nasser
Workers throughout East Pakistan staged a one-day strike in protest against the killing of several hundred workers in Khulna, which was recently reported in The Week. In most industrial centres processions were held, culminating in meetings, the largest of which was a mass rally of several thousand workers in Dacca.
A new mood of confidence of Pakistani workers is reflected in their decision to set up a Non-official Inquiry Commission to investigate the Khulna massacre. The Government has refused to appoint one. It is significant that the man who will head the Non-official Inquiry Commission is no less a person than Mr. Justice Ibrahim, a retired judge of the Dacca High Court, who was, for a time, Law Minister in the Ayub regime until he resigned as a very disillusioned man, Documents and files showing the connection between the hired thugs who attacked the workers and "certain vested interests" are said to have come into the possession of trade union leaders and will be placed at the disposal of the Non-official Inquiry Commission.
Many trade union leaders have since been arrested. The workers have demanded their immediate release, the removel of officials directly or indirectly implicated in the affair and compensation to be paid to the dependents of the workers who have been killed.