Bank Report on Bengal Destruction
The following are excerpts from a report on the western’area of East Pakistan by Mr. Hendrick von der Heifden, member of a mission of the International Bank for Reconstruction and development that visited the area last month. The report was obtained by The New York Times.
The visit to the western area of East Pakistan which took place from June 3 to June 6,1971, centered around three major cities there: Jessore, Khulna, and Kushtia. In addition, I visited Chalna anchorage and the adjoining service city of Mangla. Approaching Jessore, it became clear that this was the area where the Army punitive action had been very severe; from the air, totally destroyed villages were clearly visible, a building was still on fire, and to the eastern side of the runway a good many houses had been destroyed.
When the army moved out of the cantonment area on April 5 (from March 25 until April 5 Jessore was held by the “miscreants”), it reportedly met little in the way of strong resistance from the East Pakistan forces, and most of the very heavy damage in Jessore was the result, reportedly, of the Army punitive action. Some 20,000 people were killed in Jessore. The city’s center has been destroyed: commerce has come to a standstill. More than 50 per cent of the shops have been destroyed. Jessore is now a male city, with most women and children having been sent to the countryside. Damage to housing in Jessore district is so severe that some 450,000 people have been affected out of a total district population of 2.5 million. Half a million people have fled to India.
The Jessore area is by no means secure. Government officers cannot any more easily enter the villages as they run the risk of being shot by the “miscreants”. A number of these incidents took place in the week before I arrived, and the Army is reaching to these incidents by burning down the villages from which these shots are being fired. Generally, the Army terrorizes the population. particularly aiming at the Hindus and suspected members of the Awami League.
Khulna city has been subsequently damaged in the center of town (and) the approaches to it…… As a result of the disturbances, the destruction of houses and the continuing uncertainty regarding life and property, a large segment of the population has fled from the city; in fact, the population of greater Khulna is down from 400,000 to 150,000. It is, as Jessore, a male city. People do not venture out after dark.
(At) Chalna Anchorage. a total of five ships were anchored. some having waited for two weeks to receive cargo. Traffic on the river is down to 5-10 percent of what it used to be. The project to construct a permanent port at Chalna has been indefinitely delayed; all of the workers have fled, as have the Yugoslav consultants. The city of Mangla, the town where the labor for Chalna Anchorage lived, has been virtually obliterated by naval shelling. The population, therefore, is down from 22.000 to 1,000. Damage was extreme; houses, the marketplace, the telephone exchange, power distribution lines, etc. were all totally destroyed. Some port officers have fled, one tug disappeared. and two of the four pilots have disappeared
Perhaps the most impressive visit I made was the one (to the Phultala Thana) office (at Khulna). Fifty per cent of the population of this Thana (farm community) has fled (some 20,000 out of a total of 42,000), mostly Hindus, leaving behind unattended plots of land, houses, etc. Everything had been disrupted there; the livestock officer had been killed, the whole administration was in chaos. The people were bewildered. It is doubtful whether any government can effectively deal with these people in the near future.
It was only on April 15 (some 20 days after the Army moved into Dacca), that the army moved north from Jhenaidah and into Kushtia. There must have been very strong resistance. When the insurgents withdrew, the army punitive action started. It lasted 11 days, and left Kushtia virtually deserted and destroyed. The population was down from 40,000 to 5,000. Ninety per cent of the houses, shops, banks and other buildings were totally destroyed. The city looked like a World War II German town having undergone strategic bombing attacks. People were sitting around dazed. When we moved around, everyone fled. It was like the morning after a nuclear attack. I met the administration officials who were still shocked and dazed. I asked them to show me a shop where food was being sold: it was in the next 90 minutes impossible to find out. Kushtia, as someone told me, is the My Lai of the West Pakistan Army.
The farmers are not coming to the cities, and nobody goes out. Thousands of farmers have fled. Everything is abnormal there, and it was a shattering experience.
Reference: The Times, 14 July, 1971