NEW YORK POST, TUESDA Y, MARCH 30, 1971
HOW ARMY TANKS BLASTED A CITY
By Michel Laurent
Associated Press photographer Michel Laurent was in Dacca, the capital of East Pakistan, when the Pakistani army cracked down on the Bengali independence movement. Newsmen were confined to their hotel. But Laurent evaded the ban and toured devastated areas of the city before being finally deported with other newsmen over the weekend.
Dacca, East Pakistan (AP) The Pakistani army attacked the Bengali independence movement in Dacca without warning Thursday night and took the people by surprise.
The army’s American M24 tanks, artillery and infantry destroyed large pans of East Pakistan’s largest city and provincial capital.
The chief targets were the university, the populous Old City where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League were strongest, and the industrial areas on the outskirts of the city of 1.5 million people.
Perhaps 7000 persons were killed in the provincial capital alone.
Touring the still burning battle areas Saturday, and yesterday, one found the burned bodies of some students still in their dormitory beds.
The tanks had made direct hits on the dormitories.
A mass grave had been hastily filled in at the Jagannath College: 200 students were reported killed in Iqbal Hall. About 20 bodies were still on the ground and in the dormitories.
Troops reportedly fired bazookas into the medical College hospital but the casualty toll there was not known.
Thousands fled the city with only what they could carry. Some pushed carts loaded with food and clothes. Only a few persons returned to government jobs despite the orders of the military regime.