‘At Dacca University Burning Bodies Of
Students Still Lay In Their Beds…
A Mass Grave Had Been Hastily Covered…‘
Michel Laurent
An Associated Press photographer who evaded the Army in Dacca and toured the devastated areas
In two days and nights of shelling by the Pakistani Army perhaps 7,000 Pakistanis died in Dacca alone. The Army, which attacked without warning on Thursday night with American-supplied M24 tanks, artillery and infantry, destroyed large parts of the city. Its attack was aimed at the university. the populous Old City where Sheikh Mujibur, the Awami League leader, has his strongest following, and the industrial areas on the outskirts of this city of 1,500,000 people.
Touring the still-burning areas of fighting on Saturday and Sunday. it was obvious that the city had been taken without warning. At the university burning bodies of some students still lay in their dormitory beds. The dormitories had been hit by direct tank fire. A mass grave had been hastily covered at the Jagannath College (actually. It is a residential hall of Dacca University. not to confuse with the college: ME) and 200 students were reported killed in Iqbal hall, About 20 bodies were still lying in the grounds and the dormitories. Troops are reported to have fired bazookas into the medical college hospital, but the casualty toll was not known.
Despite claims by the central Government in West Pakistan that life is returning to normal in Dacca. thousands are fleeing the city with only the belongings they could carry. Some pushed carts loaded with food and clothes. Only a few people have returned to Government jobs. despite the orders of the military regime. Resistance to the Army has been negligible. Pakistanis are obeying military orders to turn in weapons. The Pakistani national flag is again flying from most Government buildings. It had been replaced in the past 10 days by the green. red and yellow “Bangladesh” (Bengal Nation) flag of independence.
In the old city. large parts of which were destroyed elderly men and women poked among the smoldering ruins of their homes. Army lorries and armored car” patrolled the almost deserted streets. Cars were pasted with Pakistan flags to avoid drawing fire from Army patrols. Bodies still lay sprawled in the streets where they had been caught in the Army cross-fire. Shanty towns by the railway had been burnt down. The people still appeared stunned by the shooting and death.
The Government went to extreme lengths to prevent a large contingent of foreign journalists from witnessing the Army’s intervention and the subsequent violence. Thirty-five foreign correspondents were detained in the Dacca Intercontinental Hotel, and only this reporter and a British correspondent evaded the Army cordon and subsequent deportation of newsmen to Bombay. Later the Army at Dacca airport frisked and seized film and notes on Dacca. At Karachi, the police forced me to strip. My luggage was searched again, and unexposed film was seized.
Reference: The Times, 30 March, 1971.