THE NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 17.1971
EAST PAKISTAN TOWN AFTER RAID BY ARMY
Fire and Destruction
A task force of West Pakistani troops visited this town Shckhamagar, East Pakistan, population of 8.000 on October 27 and destroyed it.
Apparently informed-mistakenly, according to residents – that a guerrilla group was here, the army attacked without warning in motor launches. Toward the end of the 20-mile trip from Dacca the launches’ engines alerted Shekhamagar’s population, most of which fled into nearby ponds, canals and paddy fields.
Shooting into houses and huts as they advanced, the troops set fire to nearly every building. Surviving residents pointed to the fresh graves where 19 villagers were buried.
The concrete schoolhouse was stripped of its furniture and doors, which the troops burned to cook their evening meal, and a rice mill was destroyed. The village’s stock of freshly harvested rice was burned for the most part, and some 3CK) cows and sheep were slaughtered.
A large quantity of wheat that villagers said had been sent under a United States laid program was reportedly loaded into the boats by the troops.
A warehouse filled with bags of phosphate fertilizer was burned and most of the bags were destroyed.
Several buildings belonging to the mosque were bumed down and the Hindu temple- there are about 400 Hindus in the community-was burned and sacked, and its idols were smashed by gunfire.
Even the local post office was sacked, and the villagers say the troops took away its stock of stamps and money.
“Do you see this ?” a villager said,’ They even destroyed our fruit. Banana trees like these take a long time to grow, and the soldiers heaped up burning straw around them and destroyed them.”
Another man, stifling tears, told this correspondent: “You Americans with your aid, you know who you helped with your wheat and oil and medicine ? You help only Yahya’s murderers.”
A foreign official, hearing of the fate of Shekharnagar, commented: “It certainly seems that in cases like this the Pakistan army and outside nations trying to provide humanitarian relief are working at cross-purposes. We bring food and fertilizer in and the army seizes or burns them.