পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (অষ্টম খণ্ড).pdf/৫৫১

( Ջ8 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র : অষ্টম খন্ড “Shoot to kill” curfew was imposed upon the city of March 26. Soldiers were seen firing with automatic weapons at the house of Colonel Osmani, a retired Bengal Army officer. Shooting and fires continued through the night, but less violently and the curfew was relaxed for five hours on Saturday March 27. During a walk through the newer part of the city, destroyed barricades and squatters, huts were seen every-where. In the older part of the city, near the police lines, there was complete destruction everywhere. It was understood that the only strong resistance to the Army took place here, with the help of policemen and troops of the East Pakistan Rifles. They were said to have been massacred for their temerity. Refugees were already beginning to leave the city. Most of them carried only a Small bundle of clothes. The curfew was again lifted on Sunday to allow families to buy food but the New Market was almost completely destroyed. At the Ramna racecourse, the two small villages and shrines of ‘Hindu herdsmen were burnt and utterly destroyed. Many bodies were seen in the rubble, and the few remaining villagers were dazed and terrified. The conclusion drawn was the East Pakistan would be without political and intellectual leadership for at least a decade, and perhaps a generation. THE NEW NATION SINGAPORE. APRIL 6, 1971 Editorial THE HOLOCAUST IN EAST PAKISTAN MUST BE ENDED Eye-witness reports from foreign residents evacuated from East Pakistan paint a more horrible picture of the carnage that has been unleashed by President Yahya's troops than had been suspected. What has been happening is nearer to genocide. An army suppressing a revolt is not in a picnic and a certain amount of unnecessary killing, however deplorable and misguided, was to have been expected. The way the army has acted, it is now clear, surpasses anything that could pass for legitimate use of force. It has resorted to wanton murder of civilians including women and children, in a deliberate plan to achieve submission by stark terror. And the army is not succeeding. The resistance of the East Pakistanis, thought unorganized and largely unaimed, gets more stubborn every day. The army’s writ does not run beyond the major towns.