Rebel Fighters Lacking Leadership,
Food And Medical Supplies
Peter Hazelhurst
Jessore city, April 4, This is a war that no one can imagine. On my left is an Army division, holed up in their barracks and surrounded by 2,000 non descript freedom fighters and about 500 members of the East Pakistan Rifles. As another shell is fired from the army cantonment about half a mile away and another house crumbles, a Bengali volunteer fires off a round from his Second World War bolt action rifle, The freedom fighters are also’ equipped with light machine-guns and captured mortars. There has been heavy exchange of fire this morning, but both sides are attempting to conserve ammunition and the firing is now sporadic.
The Bengalis are worried, They know Jessore is a strategic garrison near the Indian border and that the West Pakistan Army is well equipped and well manned, But although well equipped and well manned, the West Pakistanis are aware that they are surrounded by 75 million Bengalis and that if they attack, they will have to move in one direction and in force. for small groups of troops have been overwhelmed and hacked to death by angry mobs during the past week.
The Liberation Force’s ammunition is, however, running low and the worried freedom fighters believe that the Army will make a three-pronged attack when reinforcements are flown into Jessore airport which is under the control of the Army, But what can the Army hope to achieve? And even if President Yahya Khan can pacify the biggest urban centers. How does he expect to rule the country?
After an extensive tour of the western regions of the province, I discovered that, at best, West Pakistan can hope only to rule the eastern province as an extension of Burma in which the Government’s writ will not extend beyond the capital. Apart from cantonments. there is not an Army man to be seen for hundreds of miles. Bengali nationalism has united every Bengali from the policemen in the civil service and the border security staff with nearly 19.000 troops committed to fight the rebellion and the remaining divisions committed to the borders of West Pakistan. one cannot see how or where the President will find the people to run the country.
The entire police force has joined the liberation front. The border security force has opened up the frontier to Indian infiltration and civil servants and district magistrates are organizing guerrilla warfare in villages in the countryside. But if the Army continued to hold the biggest cities and port- industry would falter, the economy would come to a standstill and the freedom fighters would be denied petrol and other vital commodities. With the food distribution system in chaos, there is a trickle of refugees crossing the border into India.
At the Benapole border post, 22 miles west of the besieged city of Jessore the Bengalis turn a blind eye as journalists move across the border toward Jessore. As we cross the border, Indian troops at about battalion strength have moved up to the frontier and are pitching camp. A short walk and we are in East Bengal. The customs Media Vol. 27-33 outpost has a revolutionary air about it Troops of the East Pakistan Rifles assist Awami League volunteers to load jeeps and cars. All vehicles are flying the newly designed flag of Bangladesh. Students from Calcutta who describe themselves as Indian freedom fighters, are at the border and are attempting to arrange transport to Jessore.
The car stops at the village of Jhikargacha. seven miles west of Jessore. The National Awami Party men have heard that the Pakistan Army might move out of the cantonment at any moment and move up the road to this village to raid the food storage depot. The villagers who have no arms, look terrified. Scores of bicycles, rickshaws with bags of rice, are moving westward to hide the food in the countryside.
New transport is offered and a jeep takes me on to Jessore. The Army has been driven out and is at present entrenched in the military cantonment to our left. As we move into the back of the city, I am shown a communal grave of victims of the Army shooting last week. No one can estimate the death toll. Mr. Kazi Abdus Shahid. organizer of the National Awami Party. says that he saw 100 people shot when the Army moved into the town Last week, Many political leaders in Jessore were arrested and taken back to the military cantonment. Mr. Shahid estimates that 1,500 people have been killed since the civil war erupted two weeks ago.
An Awami League worker points towards a collapsed house “about 500 to 600 houses have been burnt and another 100 houses have been destroyed.” he says. Most of the population of 70,000 people have fled into the countryside. In the Kushtia district in the north, I am shown the decomposing bodies of Punjabi soldiers who were hacked to death by the villagers last week when the three companies stationed in the region were overwhelmed by a mob of 40,000 people. Mr. Samsul Alam Dudu, the organizing secretary of the Awami League in Kushtia district describes how the liberation front of all political parties routed the Army.
There were about 300 Punjabi soldiers stationed in the town of Kushtia at about midnight on March 31st he said, “They suddenly took up positions and captured the telephone exchange and all main installations. They imposed a curfew in the district without telling anyone and the next morning, they started to shoot down people, men and women. like dogs and cats.” Mr. Dudu estimates that about 200 people were killed on that day. As in all other towns, the army’s first target was the East Pakistan Rifles, After capturing the men in Kushtia, they rounded up politicians and all potential leaders in the town. Mr. Dudu said that they planned their counter attack. At about 4:30 on Monday morning, a huge crowd of about 30,000 armed with sticks and stones, surrounded the 300 Army men who retreated to the district schoolhouse. “About 300 East Pakistan Rifles men and Ansars from the district came in their rifles. The Army men used cannon and mortars on the crowd, but after a 28 hour battle, their ammunition ran ouť, he said.
Reference: The Times, 5 April, 1971