Army’s order in Dacca
By JOSEPH GALLOWAY
KHULNA (near Dacca)
The road from Jessore is lined with mile after mile of charred mud house foundations, a mute testimony to ferocity where Bengalis fell upon non-Bengalis and the army fell upon all who resisted the restoration of order.
Two out of three shops are closed. Towns and roads are relatively free of people in normally teeming areas. Thousands were killed and thousands more have fled to the countryside or across the Indian border 20 to 40 miles away.
Pakistan flags on bamboo poles fly a top virtually every remaining hut and the army seems firmly in control of the situation.
The millitary commander of Khulna district said the “situation is absolutely first class” adding the only recent incident in his area was a mine explosion under a truck at Kaliganj which killed three and wounded 24 soldiers.
A government paper mill and a number of jute mills in this area are slowly resuming production.
Workers The manager of one of the paper mills told visiting foreign correspondents that 800 of his 2,000 workers have returned and are busy preparing to export a shipment of newsprint scheduled to go to North Korea next month.
The situation is much worse at Crescent jute mill outside Khulna, which is owned by prince Agha Khan.
The Bengali manager of this mill said he has the names of 700 non-Bengali workers families slaughtered near the mill in the uprising, and some West Pakistani technicals and their families.
The manager showed the blood-spattered bungalow on the mill grounds which the rebels called “slaughter house” and where the manager says 70 women and children were hacked to death with knives, their bodies tossed into Bhairab river.
The military communder estimated upwards of 5,000 non-Bengalis were killed in the Khulna area. Homes were looted and burned.
“So not all burned houses were burned by the army,” he said.
Heaps of chopped trees and the rubble of derelict vehicles beside the road mark where dozens of roadblocks were set up by the rebels.
The commander said heavy fighting cleared some of them but he declined to estimate the total Bengali casualties “There was no time to count in those days,” he said.
Power lines
Power transmission lines were down in a dozen spots between Jessore and Khulna. But workers were busy stringing new wires.
The commander said infiltration from India continued and cited the destruction earlier this month of two boats carrying a cargo of 700 rifles, amunition and anti-tank mines.
He said 16 infiltrators aboard the boats sought refuge in nearby villages but were turned in by villagers.
He claimed the population now was co-operating 100 per cent with the army and administration.
Dacca is well under control and life is slowly returning to normal in the daytime.
Major General Rao Farman Ali, chief of civil affairs of East Pakistan, told newsmen about two thirds of Dacca’s 1,600,000 citizens are going about life normally.
The rest, he said, fled to the countryside. He said the army now is dropping pamphlets and urging them to return, guaranteeing them no harm.
Farman said reports that there had been an army massacre in Dacca were “vicious propaganda.”
“That night (March 25) we had machine gun posts firing into the air at several points. We wanted to frighten, not to kill,” he said.
Farman said the army set out to neutralise Bengali police, and the East Pakistan Regiment.
He said 38 police, about students and only three soldiers wee killed in the clashes.
“In all, our estimates and our headcount taken in the hospital in Dacca total 150”, he said.
Farman said: “We have moved back into the various towns and cities restoring order. It has taken us five weeks but now we have complete control of every inch of East pakistan.”
Shops and cars in Dacca, Jessore and Khulna have blossomed with stickers saying. “Crush India”, Farman complained: “All those refugee camps in India have millitary training camps alongside them. They will try to come back and they will get a beating.”
Bridges
Farman estimated three bridges on the vital Dacca-Chittagong railway will be back in service by June 10. He said by June 15, all technical and administative steps would have been taken to return the situation to normal. But the “human factor” made this difficult
It was difficult, for instance, to obtain replacements for the thousands of technicians who were killed in the uprising.
Farman said the army will have to provide guards at factories and mills to reassure the workers of security.
He concluded “The army has done its duty which in any country is to defend the soverignty and teritorial integrity.”
Asked about troop strength, Farman said : “It is enough- for external and internal problems”.-UPI.
Reference : The Straits Times, 29.05.1971