Mukti Bahini Operations Across Padma
The Mukti Bahini has moved from the outlying posts in the district to Rajshahi town and Natore, with the help of the floods and made surprise commando raids. The army’s gun boats, previously ferry launches of the East Pakistan Inland Water Transport Corporation, no longer venture beyond the six-mile limit north and south of the Pakshi bridge further down the Padma. The floods have put a complete halt to even the little patrolling the army was able to do along the river.
The Lieutenant informed me that the Pakistanis were trying to bring up the Padma, the modern gunboats, which the Turkish Navy had placed at their disposal. But these boats had been kept busy in the Khulna and Barisal regions and because of their crew’s unfamiliarity with the riverine areas of North Bengal they could not be brought to the interior of Bangladesh. The Lieutenant also said that the army in Rajshahi had set up a center in a big jheel at Rampur Goalia to teach Pathan, Baluchi and Punjabi soldiers how to swim.
MONSOON MAIN PROF As our boat left the shore the sky looked menacing, with high winds bringing in dark clouds. The muddy waters of the river swirled, sending our little boat tossing on the waves. Soon it started to drizzle and a heavy shower followed. Fortunately it lasted for about five minutes but during our four-hour-long cruise the light drizzle was our constant companion. The Lieutenant told me that although the monsoon’s weather at times interfered with their operations, “it usually helps us to surprise the enemy. We strike when the army thinks it impossible for us to attack. The vigorous monsoon and the floods this year have provided us with good cover and, in fact, have been the main prop of our operations”, he said.
The officer and four of his men were armed with nothing more than automatic pistols. The Pakistani Army was nowhere near the Padma. The officer said that there might be a few Razakars here and there but they could be taken care of with pistols alone. The two boatmen, Sajjad and Suleiman, struggled hard for over an hour to get the boat on the right course so that it could catch the main current and coast along the Padma’s east bank. It took them another half-hour to get into the current. The moment our boat was caught in mid-stream, the current gave it one quick spin and sent it hurting down the river. For anyone not familiar with the Padma, this was a spine-chilling experience and for a short spell it seemed that the boat was going to capsize. The boat went on at a terrific pace without the help of sails or rowers.
The blurred outline of the east bank, still two miles away, came into sight but the light drizzle made visibility poor and the first village, Debipur, that the saw had almost been swept away by the Padma, Except for a cluster of half-submerged thatched huts, nothing could be seen. The Lieutenant informed me that the villagers had been shifted to safer areas in the interior of Rajshahi. The army tried twice in July to destroy the village which provided sanctuary to the guerillas. But both times it was beaten back and soon after the floods came.
As the boat coasted along the river bank the Lieutenant with the help of binoculars showed me in the distance the damaged, pockmarked Sarda Police Training College. The boat was then steered back to mid-stream for safety. The army had vacated the college and had left it in the hands of the Razakars to defend. The white two-storeyed building was previously the training college for officers cadets of the Police Service of Pakistan, “We are well within the firing range of the Razakars.”, the officer said, “but they won’t fire upon us.” He then narrated an incident on August 6. It was about 2 a.m. About 40 of his men landed at Charghat. The two Razakars who were on duty on the river bank were stabbed to death. Guns were aimed at the Sarda Police College, 11/2 miles away, and it was pounded for half an hour by 3″ mortar shells. About 25 rounds were fired, but the enemy did not return the fire although they had 120 MM guns and 25-pounder field guns besides an assortment of automatics.
The Lieutenant told me that both the Army and the Razakars in the Rajshahi sector no longer resorted to indiscriminate firing despite provocation from the commandos. “They seem to be conserving ammunition. It was not so previously. For every shot we fired they replied with 40 to 50 rounds from .303 rifles to field guns”. He recalled an incident in the first week of July in which a fishing boat had every inch of its sails riddled with machine gun bullets by the Army. “They had fired about 400 to 500 rounds on that boat in about 10 minutes. They no longer liberally expend ammunition. They now fire only when they have to.”
This restraint has been noticed ever since the Padma was flooded. A dozen streams and tributaries of this river, branching off into Rajshahi district have breached several highways including the one connecting Natore with Rajshahi town. Natore is the Bridge H.Q. of the Army in Rajshahi district. This has resulted in communication difficulties. The second reason is that with the stepping up of commando action both the Army and the Razakars are getting ready for the worst. Apparently, orders have come to these trigger happy men to conserve ammunition.
DESPERATE AS EVER
However, the Army is as desperate and ruthless as ever and this has now turned their own men against them. Several hours after the commando action at Charghat on August 6, the Army came down from Rajshahi town, about six miles away, in platoon strength and raided the six-mile belt between Charghat and Mirganj, killing over 30 to 40 Muslim youths, many of whom were sons of local “peace committee” members. In a similar incident on July 27 the Army also killed about 70 Muslims at Bilberia Haat, also near Rajshahi town, after the commandos in a daring raid during the curfew hours at night destroyed the Lalpur thana on July 24 and killed one subInspectro, three other police personnel and two prominent Muslim League leaders. Danesh Kazi and Mohsin Sarkar. About 15 to 20 of those killed at Bilberia are also said to be sons of “peace committee” members. Many of these youths had once helped the Army in April in identifying the local Awami League members and had also looted their property.
These two successive incidents have shattered the morale of the “peace committee” in these areas, many of whose members have panicked and fled from the villages with their families. This was hardly what they had expected from the Army which they had served so “loyally” since April. The resentment among members of the peace committees is spreading and the Lieutenant admitted that many of these committee members were surreptitiously helping the commandos in their operations. They were giving the commandos food, money and shelter, besides directions regarding their operations.
Some of recent commandos raids, like the damaging of installations at the Rajshahi power house, which disrupted power supply for two days in the district and the killing of three Razakars at Paano Ekamra Haat, have led the Army to suspect the “peace committee” members complicity in these incident. As a result, the Army has become cautious and now makes detailed inquiries about anyone who is made a member of the committee. This has added to the ever increasing civilian duties that the Army has now to perform in Bangladesh.
Economically, the Lieutenant said, Rajshahi was no better off than other districts in Bangladesh. Salt was being sold at 12 annas a seer and there was large-scale smuggling of rice into India since the purchasing power of the people in the district was decreasing. The only sugar mill in the district at Gopalpur, which is the second biggest in Bangladesh, has been closed since March 25 and the Army has already dismantled and shipped important machinery of the plant to West Pakistan.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 15.08.1971