Guerrillas Join Hunt for The Tiger
Delhi, Dec. 21. The Indian Army and the Mukti Bahini are hunting for “General” Abdul Qadir Siddiqui, a student leader accused of inciting violence against West Pakistanis at a public meeting in Dacca last Saturday, when four men were bayoneted or shot to death. Announcing this today, Indian officials said that the Indian Army had arrested a man named Saddiqui yesterday, but it was a case of mistaken identity and he had been released.
Mr. Siddiqui, aged 25, a prominent guerrilla leader during the past eight months, addressed the meeting in a Dacca football stadium when the four men died. Military officials said that Mr. Siddiqui, known also as the “Tiger of Tangail”, was a wanted man. With 16,000 Mukti Bahini once under his command, he is a powerful figure but even some student leaders are calling for his execution when he is caught.
Mr. V.I.K. Sarin, correspondent of the Indian Express today reported from Dacca that he had counted more than 70 bodies of West Pakistanis in one area of the capital as the Bengalis settled scores. The continued absence of the political leadership from Dacca “has placed the student guerrilla leaders in the positions of custodians of law and order”, Mr Sarin wrote. “Carrying loaded revolvers and Chinese automatic weapons, these bearded student leaders visit hotels, restaurants, pharmacists and grocers to ‘ensure that prices of commodities in short supply do not shoot up.”
In the past nine months Bengali women were “kidnapped and raped indiscriminately”. There was unconcealed resentment at the suggestion that the past be forgotten and the enemy be forgiven. Mr Sarin quoted one Bengali woman as saying: “India may be bound by the Geneva convention, but the people of Bangladesh have no such obligations. Our wounds are still too deep and our thirst for the enemy’s blood has yet to be quenched.” Mr Sarin said that the signs of revenge were “unmistakable” and there had been quite a few incidents in Dacca during the past 48 hours.
Another Indian Express correspondent, Mr C. S. Pandit. reporting from Dacca. said that an armed Pro- West Pakistan militant force. known as Al- Badr. had entrenched itself in two Dacca suburbs and was sniping at anyone who approached. The Mukti Bahini were determined to put an end to AI- Badr and had placed a cordon round the two suburbs. “The situation is tense and the Indian Army has a difficult time: controlling the situation which might erupt any moment into a holocaust. Mr. Pandit wrote. Disarming the civilians throughout East Bengal was a stupendous task. “but it has got to be done soon if mass reprisals are to be prevented in the Present mood of anger and hatred.” – Reuters.
Calcutta, Dee 21. Indian telegraphic authorities told the Associated Press yesterday that five Radio-photographs showing the executions of suspected collaborators in Dacca could not be transmitted because they were detrimental to “the national interests”. The photographs were part of 11 photographs on the killings. The other six were transmitted.-AP.
Reference: The Times, 22 December, 1971