THE FINANCIAL TIMES, LONDON, OCTOBER 27, 1971
REPRISALS CONTINUE AGAINST UNARMED EAST PAKISTANIS
AP Report from Dacca
In spite of the military regime’s persisted denials, the Pakistan army, and police continue to take reprisals against unarmed civilians living where the Bengali rebels operate, even within sight of the residence of the new civilian governor in the middle of Dacca. Authoritative sources say the American Government also continues to urge the Pakistani army to halt the attacks in an effort to create a tranquil atmosphere to attract back some of the millions of refugees who have left East down Pakistan since March 25, when the army cracked against the Awami League and its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, throwing the predominantly Bengali province of 75 million people into civil War.
The sources said American Congressman Peter H.B. Freling Huysen (Rep.. New Jersey) was instructed to ask President Yahya Khan about attacks on unarmed persons when he met the military leader in Rawalpindi during his tour of Pakistan earlier this month.
According to the sources, the President denied shootings are taking place and would not concede they might even have happened accidentally. Evidence of reprisal is a burned strip 200 yards square in the Dayaganj residential district astride the railway line connecting Dacca to its river port of Narayanganj, 11 miles away.
According to eyewitnesses, troops, police and volunteer “razakars” burned dozens of homes and shot scores of people a week ago, an hour after two men believed to be members of Mukti Bahini, the Bangladesh freedom army, gunned down in daylight six soldiers in a patrol. Survivors claimed the reprisals took the lives of at least 50 persons and many others were wounded as forces carrying automatic weapons went from house to house firing into rooms and setting buildings afire.
From the top one bridge one can count at least 60 homes razed to the ground. Residents said the families have fled from most of the 300 houses in the neighborhood of shopkeepers, laborers, and petty Government officials. “There was, no Mukti Bahini when the army came”, said one civil servant. “I’m a Government servant and I tell you no person had a weapon”. The residents readily spoke to AP about the attack, despite the presence of armed guards at a nearby rail bridge and crossing, but they refused to give their names for publication and one shopkeeper said the people feared agents of the criminal investigation division of the police.
The neighbourhood is about three miles from the residence of the new Bengali civilian governor, Dr. A.M. Malik. The scene of burned houses, twisted corrugated iron roofs and rubble is reminiscent of the appearance of Dacca after the army struck last March 25. The bridge guards said the Mukti Bahini killed at least four soldiers and wounded two others Apparently the rebels disappeared without being harmed. The incident was one of a series of exchanges of fire, which residents said are occurring almost nightly throughout the capital city. Houses in Dayaganj still had blood splattered walls, floors, and rents torn in their bamboo doors and walls by bayonets. The army had no immediate comment but officers have said frequently-troops are ordered only to fire when fired upon.