War of Genocide Against East Pakistanis
Aim Is To Wipe Out Province’s Political
And Intellectual Chiefs
Louis Heren
Allegations that they have waged a war of genocide in East Pakistan have been made against the country’s military regime whose objective is said to be the elimination of the political and intellectual leadership in the eastern province.
Thousands of Hindus ‘are said to have been slaughtered by Muslim troops. It is now feared that millions of non-Bengali Muslims trapped in East Pakistan may become the target of revenge-seeking Bengalis. Many non-Bengalis are said to have been killed during the past week.
The Pakistan Army is alleged to have waged a war of genocide in East Pakistan. The objective is said to be the elimination of the political and intellectual leadership, and it might well have been achieved. Old religious enmities are also said to have been revived, Thousands of Hindus are alleged to have been slaughtered by Muslim troops. This and other charges ‘were made in London yesterday by a young man who left Dacca earlier this week after spending the past two years there. For many reasons his name cannot be revealed, but I know him to be a level-headed and responsible man.
He confirmed that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the East Bengal leader escaped the carnage, but 11 members of the bodyguard were killed. The Sheikh was arrested by troops last Thursday, held in the American school for two days, and from there flown to West Pakistan. He is believed to be held in Multan. According to this informant, a systematic pattern of physical and psychological destruction became apparent even during the first night of fighting on March 25. Soon after, it became clear that certain groups had been selected to be the victims of completely unrestrained brutality.
These included Awami League leaders, students (who are the most radical members of the League), professors and their families and any Hindu who could be found. The army commanders had apparently concluded that students were the nucleus of a future Bengali independence movement. The professors represented East Pakistan. intelligentsia, vital for the administration of a future independent Bengal. The reason for killing the Awami League leaders was self-evident. As for the Hindus, my informant is convinced that the troops were led to believe that they were the malign force behind the secessionist movement.
No single observer could possibly have observed all that went on during the five days of fighting, but what follows was actually seen. At the University of Dacca the residential dormitory, Jagannath Hall, was reserved for Hindu students. Tank tracks led to the wall of the compound, which had been blasted down. Outside the building there was a fresh mass grave. Inside blood streamed from every room which had also been looted, There were bodies of six savagely-killed men in the servants’ quarters nearby.
In the apartments of the faculty staff, children were seen shot dead in their beds. The dead bodies of what appeared to be the entire family of a senior professor, were found in another apartment. Outside were seen the bodies of students still clutching lathis, or bamboo staves. in their hands. There were bloody footprints on the central staircase, and splotches of blood trickled down the outside wall of the building.
In two of the old city’s largest bazaars, one entirely Hindu and the other predominantly so. The stench of dead and burning bodies was so overpowering that the survivors walked about with clothes over their noses. At least seven or eight bodies were seen in the rubble of ruined buildings and on refuse dumps. In one house. My informant saw the still-warm corpse of a man who had been shot to death minutes before. It was surrounded by his wailing wives. That is what was actually seen. What follows is an account of what happened during the five days of the fighting, Parts of it are reports received by the informant from friends before he left Dacca.
The Army moved in, in force, to occupy key points of the town shortly before midnight on March 25. President Yahya Khan had departed for Karachi only a few hours before, and the assumption was that the troops acted on his personal instructions. According to official spokesmen, the Army had been warned of a plot to barricade all the approaches to the cantonment shortly after the President’s departure. Barricades had certainly gone up throughout the city. and from midnight until noon the next day. Dacca echoed with the sounds of firing. from heavy artillery, heavy machine-guns and other automatic weapons.
Throughout the night. there was the glare of large fires and tracer bullets. By dawn. a large pall of smoke covered much of the city and drifted slowly northwards toward the wealthy suburb” of Gulshan. Fires were also seen in the Bihari area, the scene of communal friction in the north. A shoot to kill curfew was imposed upon the city on March 26. Soldiers were seen firing with automatic weapons at the house of General Osmani, a retired Bengal Army officer.
Shooting and fires continued through the night, but less violently, and the curfew was relaxed for five hours on Saturday March 27. During a walk through the newer part of the city. destroyed barricades and squatters’ huts were seen everywhere. In the older part of the city near the police lines, there was complete destruction everywhere. It was understood that the only strong resistance to the Army took place here, with the help of policemen and troops of the East Pakistan Rifles. They were said to have been massacred for their temerity, Refugees were already beginning to leave the city. Most of them carried only a small bundle of clothes.
Reference: The Times, 2 April, 1971