DEATH IN EAST PAKISTAN
It is, by every reasonably reliable account, all over in East Pakistan. All over that is, except the agony, the scorched earth policy, the wanton killing, the selective slaughter of potential Bengali leaders and the indestructible dream of independence.
The bid for autonomy has been, for the present, effectively suppressed. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the secessionist leader and president of Free Bengal, is reported to be in prison in West Pakistan, awaiting trial for treason. The remnant of the rebel army, short of arms, ammunition, food transportation and shoes, stages progressively weaker guerilla raids on the well-equipped West Pakistani army of 80,000. In reprisal, the government forces have killed tens of thousands of Bengali civilians- and some reports put the figure in the hundreds of thousands. A New York Times correspondent, who crossed from India into East Pakistan, reported that government troops, acting on orders from Karachi, have killed engineers, doctors, professors and students in an attempt to eradicate the future Bengali leadership. The army has tried to lay waste the future ecomomy of East Pakistan by destroying the meager physical wealth of the area- food supplies, natural gas fields, jute mills.
Even making generous allowance for the exaggeration that usally accompanies a millitary defeat, the story from East Pakistan is one of atrocity and heartbreak. No one, however far removed from the devastation, can remain untouched by it.
For East Pakistan, the defeat brings another dimension of horror to a people who have, in recent months, borne the scourge of food, disease and famine. For West Pakistan, the victory brings with it the assurance of eventual defeat, for the bloody repression of the secessionists assures the Punjabis and the Pathans of the lasting ermity of the Bengalis.
The government of the United States can, for the moment play no overt role other than that of anguished spectator. It can and should, however use the channels of quiet diplomacy to persuade the West Pakistanis to stop the killing, which is approaching the proportions of genocide and it should prepare now for the moment when the fighting ends, the time when supplies of food, clothing and medicine will be needed in quantity by the destitute survivors of the slaughter.
THE EVENING STAR, 17.4.1971
Source : Bangladesh Documents, P. 393