Bangladesh Newsletter
No. 2
May 25, 1971
Death continues to stalk over the land of Bangladesh. Everyday hundreds and thousands are still being killed by the Pakistani army as part of its policy of forcing the Bengalis into submission. Houses and property are being destroyed at random and already more than 3 million (see May 22, New York Times) people of Bangladesh have sought refuge in neighboring India ; more than 50,000 continue to pour in everyday. And yet the conscience of the world’s governments seems unperturbed. They are still concerned about maintaining the status quo. The recent agreement between the United States and the British government to shore up the crumbling Pakistani economy, under certain conditions, is a case in point. (see New York Times, May 20) The agreement calls for greater justice for the Bengalis but within the framework of Pakistan; the present reality is overlooked completely.
The reality is that Pakistan is dead and lies buried under the neaps of Bengali corpses. The sooner this is accepted by all concerned, the better. To dream of any return to Pakistan as it existed before March 25, 1971, is absurd. The blood of a million Bengalis killed by the Pakistani army since that date connot go in vain. The remaining 74 million Bengalis owe it to their slain brothers to sacrifice the last drop of their own blood, if need be, to safeguard the sanctity, sovereignty and freedom of Bangladesh. And they are ready for that supreme sacrifice. Let no man doubt the resolve of the Bengalis.
It is true that the Bengali resistance forces have suffered great reverses in the initial stages of the struggle for national liberation. They have lost city after city to the Pakistani army. But this doesn’t mean that the resistance has been crushed. The authority of the army extends only up to the range of its guns in the cities. Beyond that the whole of the Bangladesh countryside is unpacified and under control of the liberation forces. These forces have regrouped and trained for guerrilla action during the last month and a half. They are now engaged in constand harassment of the Pakistani army. The cost of the enemy’s operation has been high, both in financial terms and in terms of army casualties.
The world powers and the aid-giving nations can, of course, sustain the Pakistani military operations by providing aid to the West Pakistan regime. This can only prolong the genocide that is now being carried on with ruthless efficiency. The scorched-earth policy of this barbaric force may further cripple the economy and lay waste the whole of Bangladesh. However, the West Pakistanis cannot rule the Bengalis again, no matter how much they reinforce their isolated enclaves of power. The army will remain as islands in a hostile sea with not a friendly face to turn to. Already more than 80% of the Bengali civil servants have joined the fighting alongside the liberation forces-thereby crippling the administration. The Bengali police and military forces have joined the struggle on masse.
Awareness of this reality dictates only one course of action for any government that cares for human lives and suffering. The Pakistani military should be forced to withdraw from the soil of Bangladesh. If the world is really interested in saving large numbers of innocent human lives, if democracy and freedom still mean anything to the world, then Bangladesh must be helped and helped now.
To the world at large, then, Bangladesh makes its appeal. Chinese guns, America ammunition, Britain and Soviet equipment are being used in this act of genocide. Today the selfish interests of the great powers inhibits them from taking sides with freedom and justice. If these powers were to simply indicate that their own tools could not be used to commit genocide, that no further aid would be forthcoming to Pakistan till their army withdraws from the soil of Bangladesh—where the people so overwhelmingly rejected West Pakistani domination in the last general election and where the flood of Bengali blood has drowned all hopes of reconciliation—then, that military machine of repression would grind to a standstill.
Till them we must stand alone and appeal over the heads of governments to the people of the world and ask them to tell their governments that the status quo is itself ephenormal. The future they seek in this region lies only with the people and not with their oppressores.
To the democratic peoples, the socialists and all people of humane impulse in West Pakistan, we appeal to them to exert their influence, whatever little they have, to see that the holocaust does not continue. Our quarrel was never with them; they must now being together for a shared humanity and see to it that sanity prevails amongst their rulers. To them we say that a just society in West Pakistan can never be built from the blood and bones of the peasants, workers, students and intellectuals of Bangladesh. We will rise from the ashes of destruction to rebuild a new order; but because of their connivance, they will forever be held under the jack boots which tried to crush us.
As for ourselves we pledge that we shall not repeat the experience of 1947 when all the enthusiasm generated by the struggle for Pakistan was dissipated in building a society of privileges and greed. We have had the rare opportunity of a second birth. Let us build with and for the people.
ANNOUNCEMENTS :
1) Since the beginning of the crisis in Bangladesh the Bengalis living in this country have felt the necessity of having a central organisation to co-ordinate the activities of different groups. Accordingly, legal advice was sought from a law firm in Chicago and under their advice a new organisation.The Bangladesh Defense League, was incorporated in Illinois as a non-profit, tax-free organisation, though contributions to this organisation will not be tax-exempt.
At a meeting held in Chicago on Sunday May 23 a Board of Directors for the BDL was formed including one member from each of the groups represented at the meeting. The Board of Directors will be the decision-making body of the League and co-ordinate all of its activities such as fund-raising and lobbying. So far the Board of Directors includes one member each from the Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas groups which sent representatives to the May 23 meeting. By the time this newsletter reaches you we hope all of the other groups in this country working for the cause of Bangladesh will also be represented on the Board.
2) Another new organisation, The Bangladesh Emergency Welfare Appeal, has also been incorporated in Illinois for the sole purpose of raising relief funds for the war-affected and displaced people of Bangladesh. Contributions to the Appeal are tax-exempt, which means that people will be able to deduct the amounts they contribute to the Appeal from their annual income tax. Like the BDL, the BEWA will also be managed by a Board of Directors including representatives of all the Bangladesh groups in this country. The Chairman of the Board is Dr. F.R. Khan, noted structural engineer, of Chicago.
The BEWA will soon launch a nation-wide appeal for funds. Further information together with receipt books will be mailed to the secretaries of the local groups.
3) The Bengalis in this country are dispersed throughout most of the United States. Many of you who will receive this newsletter may have formed groups that we do not yet know about. The next meeting of the Board of the BDL will be held in Chicago on June 6. If you wish to be represented at this meeting please send the name of your representative to the Secretary of the BDL, 5245 South Kenwood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60615.
4) Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury, the Vice-Chancellor of Dacca University and the Bangladesh
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representatives to the U.N. is due to arrive in New York on Monday May 24. During his stay in this country he will meet with U.N. and U.S. officials.
OPERATINE EXPENSES :
The League has undertaken a wide variety of activities as dictated by the present critical circumstances in Bangladesh. The difficulty is that all of these activities cost money. In order to raise the money to cover these costs on a regular basis, we are asking those Bengalis who have jobs to pledge whatever per cent of their income they can afford to the League and make payments of this money to the League on a monthly basis. Please fill out the form below and return it to the Chicago Chapter :
I,…………………………………………… , pledge $ ……………………….every month as a contribution to Bangladesh Defense League. I understand that my conrtibution is not tax deductible.
Signed ………………………………………………………
Date …………………………………………………………
Address …………………………………………………….
Telephone …………………………………………………
(Needless to say, all financial information enclosed will be held in strictest confidence by the Treasurer of the Chicago Chapter. Send your cheques to the Bangladesh Defense League, 5245 South Kenwood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60615. You will receive receipts for any contribution you make. The Bangladesh government through its emissary informs us that arrangements are being made to make your contributions redeemable at a later time. So please hold on to your receipts.)
Issued by the
BANGLADESH DEFENSE LEAGUE
Chicago Chapter
5245 S. Kenwood, Chicago, Ill. 60615
RESISTANCE NEWS :
STATESMAN, May 9, 1971
Liberation Forces Launch Fresh Offensive
Bangladesh liberation forces have opened a fresh offensive against strategic Pakistan Army positions in the western region of East Bengal, says PTI.
Reports from across the border today said the Mukti Fouj was engaged in neavy fighting with Pakistani Army units and volumns in the Rangpur, Rajshahi, Kustia and Jessore sectors.
At Saidpur, in Rangpur sector, the Liberation Forces drew the Pakistanis out in a head-on battle and indicated heavy casualties. In Kustia, the Mukti Fouj successfully ambushed a Pakistani volumn on the move.
In the Rajshahi town, guerrilla groups were active in Charghat and Sharda, while in Jessore sector, there was exchange of fire between ther Mukti Fouj and a Pakistani unit in the Benapole area bordering West Bengal.
In the Eastern sector, while fighting continues near Akhanna, Fierce commando attacks by the Liberation Forces at the strategic Rajapur village between Quasba and Akhaura forced the Pak Army to beat a retreat on Friday leaving the hamlet in the control of the Mukti Fouj.
The Mukti Fouj captured some arms and machine gun bullets left behind by the fleeing Pak Troops.
PAK TROOPS AMBASHED
A Cooch Behar massage received on Saturday said that guerrilla units of the Mukti Fouj ambushed the rampaging Pakistani Army men on Friday night at Moghalhat and Kurigram in Rangpur district killing at least 33 of them.
Tnose killed included a captain named Rizvi who was conducting the acts of depredations at Moghalhat railway stations.
Earlier the Pakistani Army men had arrived at Moghalhat by train from the important railway township of Lalmonirhat in Rangpur and were dumping looted goods in the train to be despatched to Lalmonirhat.
Giving details of the attack on the Pakistani Army at Moghalhat the report said the Mukti Fouj men who had been watching the Pak Army’s depredations for the last few days waited for the opportune moment till Friday night when its guerrilla commandos suddenly started firing from light machine guns and burled grenades on the Pakistani Army killing 26 Taken by surprise the Pakistani troops fled from the station immediately, leaving behind the bodies of the men killed.
The Mukti Fouj captured one Manwar Ali, a Frontier Scout of the Pakistani Army, who sustained severe wounds during the guerrilla attack at Kurigram.
At Moghalhat also the Mukti Fouj killed two notorious spies and captured one Mahammed Mandal, stated to be connected with the intelligence branch of the Pakistani Army.
London Times May 14, 1971
Bangla desh
Alan Hart of Panorama in just back from Bangla Desh—having flown out with the first Oxfam consignment of British aid from Brize Norton of Friday. His short visit sufficed to convince him that there is a danger of a refugee problem of Middle Eastern intractability; that the Bangla Desh forces have regrouped on Indian territory; and that they are now launching the first stages of their guerrilla warfare with hit and run raids over the border.
Hart also came under heavy machine-gun fire from the Pakistan army while accompanying Bangla Desh forces on an excursion into east Pakistan. He had to run for his life.
Hart says there are two million refugees in India already, and that relief organizers fear the numbers may even treble in the next few weeks. “They are pouring in by the thousands every day. Where
we were, at Hakimpur, north of Calcutta, 37,000 had come to at just one crossing point the previous day. The relief people are already worned that it will be beyond them to cope”.
A major of the Bangla Desh regular army (the former East Pakistan Rifles) told Hart that he had 1,200 men at fire bases established along his 100-mile sector. Hart was shown armanents, including anti-tank guns, which the Bangla Desh raiders had captured, and saw civilian guerrillas being trained close to the improvised refugee camps.
He was impressed by the “terrific spirit” of the Bangla Desh army. Refugees told him that the Pakistan army on occupying each village, rounded up the population, singled out 10 or 20 of the younger men, and shot them. One soldier in Bangla Desh uniform. Hart found, was an 11-year-old boy from Jessore : the major said the boy had seen his mother-father, and brother bayoneted to death, and had escaped to seek out the Bangla Desh army and to get himself a gun.
BANGLADESH LEADER SAYS…
15,000 Pak Soldiers Killed Since March 25
At least 15,000 West Pakistani Army men were killed and 30,000 injured in the fight with the Liberation Army of Bangladesh since March 25, according to an important leader of Bangladesh reports PTI.
The leader, who left Dacca in the last week of April and preferred to remain anonymous, told reporters in an interview somewhere in Bangladesh that all the hospitals in the province were taken over by the military authorities for nursing the injured Army personnel. In West Pakistan also, most of the hospitals were full with injured soldiers.
He said the Army authorities had tried to coax a handful of people at Dacca to do work at gunpoint, but failed. Even the Chief Justice of Dacca High Court Mr. B.A. Siddiqui, he said, was compelled at gunpoint to administer the oath of office to a military officer who was being passed as Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan, the leader said.
U.S. adds : The martial Law authorities have prepared a list of 30,000 Bengalis fo Dacca and other main cities of East Bengal to kill them one by one. According to a Government officer and young business man who arrived in Agartala recently from Bangladesh the list includes those whom the Army authorities consider pro-Indian of staunch Awami League followers. They said the Pakistani soldiers “come at night and take the listed persons away to some unkown place”.
Addressing the India-Bangladesh Friendship Association in New Delhi on Sunday, Mr. A. K. M. Ayub, a Dacca University student, said that Mr. G.C. Deb, Head of the Department of Philosophy in the Dacca University was shot dead for not divulging to the West Pakistan Army the whereabouts of Hindu students studying there.
TIMES OF INDIA, May 9, 1971
Fauj’s hit-run tactic pays
By KIRIT BHAUMIK
“The Times of India” News Service
AGARTALA, May 8. College students and even schoolboys, who are fighting with the lieberation forces,
are doing a neat job of harassing and killing the West Pakistani troops in the various towns of Bangla Desh.
Though equipped with only small arms, the guerillas have achieved commendable results in their attacks on towns like Akhaura, Ramgarh, Debogram, Subhapur and Madhavpur in the past fews days.
The troops are finding it increasingly difficult to hold on to the towns in the face of hit-and-run attacks by guerrilla bands. Despite their superior fire power, the West Pakistani troops have suffered more casualties than the freedom-fighters in the past few days.
Elsewhere, Mukti Fouj men are putting up a heroic resistance despite serious handicaps.
CALL TO YOUTH :
The former Union Minister for Petroleum and Chemicals, Dr. Triguna Sen, who toured the border areas of West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura, has meanwhile appealed to young men and women of the country to help the suffering people of Bangla Desh by at least contriouting the bare necessities of life.
“We may take time to give further thought to the question of granting recognition to Bangla Desh and we may have difficulties in giving arms and ammunition to the freedom-fighters, but nothing should deter us from providing them with daily necessities on humanitarian grounds”.
Dr. Sen has appealed for pants, shirts, vests, lungis, socks, shoes, raincoats, water bottles, saucers, material soap, first-aid boxes, blankets and pullovers.
“If the youth of our country cherish the ideal of freedom and democracy, here is an opportunity to live up to that ideal”.