The Refugees Tide Ebbs
There were misgivings in India that the war would touch off a new influx of refugees from East Bengal, but it did not come. There were few pitched battles, and these were mostly around military cantonments. In general the scene of fighting shifted rapidly towards Dacca as the Pakistani troops fell back. Some refugees, in fact, have already started to return to their homes in border areas on their own initiatives. A Calcutta report, quoting state government sources, said that 30,000 of them had left camps in West Bengal by December 12th.
These are the people who are going back in a hurry to resume possession of their homes and lands. Seven days’ rations were given to them as a parting gift. But the Indian and the Bangladesh governments would both prefer to wait a little for conditions to stabilize before giving a general go-ahead signal. Transit camps are to be set up, partly for screening and partly to provide temporary shelter for those whose homes have been destroyed either in the earlier repression or in this month’s fighting.
The Indian department of rehabilitation will continue to look after returning refugees in the initial stage. So far as one can judge there is unlikely to be an immediate food problem for this is the time when Bengalis harvest their main rice crop. But other essentials like salt, sugar and kerosene are acutely scarce.
Reference: The Economist, 18 December, 1971