পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (অষ্টম খণ্ড).pdf/৫৭৬

(t85, বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র : অষ্টম খন্ড Hardly three kilometers from the East Bengal border, the 260 bed hospital was overflowing with patients mostly victims of the trigger-happy Pakistan Army. All its wards were crammed within-patients when a party of Indian and foreign journalists visited the hospital on Wednesday. It has 530 patients, more than double its capacity. All available space was occupied by patients. The crowding was more conspicuous in the surgical ward where the patients were those riddled with bullets or bit by shells. Among the pathetic cases were a boy of 13 and a girl of nine. Both of whom had lost their eyesight because of Pakistani shelling. The doctor treating them said that despite all that he could possibly do, restoration of eyesight was almost impossible. Mr. Shamsuddin Ahmed, a railway engineer, had a heavy bandage on his bead. Ho was shot by Pakistani soldiers who entered his office. About to retire from service, Mr. Ahmed said be was railroad engineer in the Akhaura Junction across the Tripura border. One afternoon last month several army personnel entered his office and threw away the files. Later they started spraying bullets. He and his colleagues ran away. But before he could escape he was hit by a bullet. His relations brought him to the hospital on April 18. Mr. Ahmed said that he never participated in any political activity. In a voice choked with emotion he wondered what he would do to support a family of 10 members. He had all on a sudden become penniless with his house and belongings with the same compound of his office burnt down by Pakistani soldiers. The only consolation was that his family was safe. They were in the village at the time of the incident. Later they crossed the border to be housed in the camps of evacuees. MASS KILLING Mr. Halid Hussain (27) was undergoing treatment for shock and exhaustion. He left Chittagong on April 27, when the Army after taking control of the town started indiscriminate killing of Bengalis. He was not at all interested in politics. But after witnessing the massacre of his people he has decided to join the Mukti Fouj (Liberation Army). Asked whether the Mukti Fouj would be able to win independence from a wellequipped occupation force Mr. Hussain recalled the fight of Algerians and Tunisians against the mighty French and said that if these countries could win freedom, Mukti Fouj could also liberate Bangladesh from the Pakistan Army. He said that the Pakistan Army’s aim at present was to kill Bengalis, whether they were Muslims or Hindus. A Muslim girl of 13 said the Army asked her family of twelve including father and mother to get into the house. They later set fire to it and went away. The girl miraculously escaped while all the other members of the family died. An old lady in the neighborhood rescued her and broQught her to Agartala.