EXPRESSEN, STOCKHOM, APRIL 12, 1971
MASS MURDERS IN BENGAL
The military regime in Pakistan has now released a photo which is supposed to prove that Mujibur Rahman has been taken prisoner.
By showing him as a prisoner they want to undermine morale in East Pakistan. But this photo is not convincing evidence. Why was it not released earlier? Why has no date been given? Why do they not show Rahman himself?
It is in any case obvious that Yahya Khan’s regime wishes to prevent Rahman at all costs from becoming a martyr. The question is, however, whether such feelings would change the situation much in East Pakistan. With or without Rahman-there is no turning back for the East Bengalis.
We now know what is happening in spite of the attempts by the military regime to hide the facts. Refugees have testified to massive bombings, reckless rampages of West Pakistani troops and mass murders.
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing from their homes. Starvation threatens. The hostilities are directed against the majority of the country’s population under the motivation that the unity of Pakistan must be preserved. The military regime is using violence to sweep aside the result of the country’s first general parliamentary elections. The rulers were not prepared to swallow the consequences of this election; instead they set the military machinery going. It is obvious that this method will never lead to the reunification of East and West Pakistan. Ruthless occupation or drawn-out war: these are the only alternatives.
This is a policy that must be condemned.