Scars of Bloodshed in Dacca
by Mort Rosenblum
Dacca, E. Pakistan, May 6 (AP)
The first foreign newsmen allowed into Dacca since the March 26 rebellion found Thursday a sullen city limping back to life with deep scars of bloodshed.
Pakistan Army units completely control the Eastern capital. “Thousonds of tiny green and white Pakistani flags hand limply over rows of shops : many shuttered but some open- and homes.:
Tikka said his own troops had to kill students and others who he said fired when the Pakistan army tried to disarm them. He said about 130 rebels were killed in Dacca the first night.
Signs everywhere underscored the crippling economic damage which Tikka said could take at least a year to put right if all conditions remained favorable.
“I am sorry to say there was quite a lot of massacre”, said Martial law administrator Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan, “mainly directed against pro-Pakistani and proregime elements … Bengalis against non-Bengalis”.
He referred to widely confirmed accounts of mass killings of non-Bengali people including women and children by indigenous Bengalis, whipped up by political development from March I which led to civil war by the month’s end.
Only a scant portion of Dacca’s one milion inhabitants are on the normally teeming streets.
Reporters found only crows and a few begging children among the charred and crumbling Hindu settlement of Ramana Kali Bari nestled in the midst of Dacca’s grass clogged racecourse.
Hindus were reportedly hustled by both Bengalis and army troops as alleged conspirators in this heavily Moslem nation. Many are believed in hiding or across the border as refugees to India.
Almost no soldiers patrol the streets. A single sentry peers over the wall of Radio Pakistan.
An ati-aircraft emplacement is dug in by the runway at Dacca International Airport which now is the major link to the outsids world. The rebels cut rail and road communications with the port of Chittagong.
Six foreign newsmen arrived from Karachi Thursday (Associated Press, New York Times, Reuter, Time Magazine, Financial Times, and New China News Ageny) on a conducted tour …
Subjected to censorship was in force
They were the first group allowed in since the military authorities bundled off about 40 journalists March 26 after taking their notes, copy and film.
Since then several newsmen have visited Dacca by land, avoiding the army.
Two newsmen of the sanctioned party Thursday took a sepatate tour in a taxi through Dacca, visiting the old city, the university and other areas where action had been reported.
Along the Nawab Pur Road one Bengali pointed to long stretches of charred and shattered buildings and said “:Look what the government has…
Dacca University was mostly undamaged but two dormitories which the army had said housed rebel militants bore signs of massive attack.
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Jagganath Hall still has gaping artillery holes in it and rooms are burned out. Iqbal Hall has been cleaned up but fire scars still show clearly.
Pakistani flags are erected everywhere and Bengalis say they are for the protection of their property. At the British Council a bedsheet-sized Union Jack covers part of the front wall and a tiny Pakistani flag flutters from a crude pole near by.
Tikka told the newsmen the army controlled all of East Pakistan though there was some threat of Indian infiltration.
He said a longterm guerrilla campaign was a possibility but added it was a remote one.
Major damage was to communications and transport, he said, estimating some key bridges may take up to one month to repair.
He said some 160,000 to 170,000 rebels made the initial fight but now nearly 100,000 of their weapons had been surrendered to the army.
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 11.05.1971