their determination to establish a sovereign Bengal on the basis of the Lahore Resolution. More than 99% of the representatives were elected in 1970 with boat as their symbol. The reason for this historic victory can be found in the dream of the Bengalis to have an independent and sovereign Bangladesh. Rulers of West Pakistan could not realize beforehand that the people of East Bengal would give such a tremendously united election verdict against the oppression and exploitation of West Pakistani vested interests. This election verdict made them unnerved and simultaneously infuriated them against the people of East Bengal.
So, totally ignoring the democratic rights of 7.5 crore Bengalis, Gen. Yahya Khan under cover the long negotiation, unleashed his army on the people on March 25. He himself fled away from Dacca at midnight. Under Tikka Khan's leadership, an orgy of violence and murder was let loose in Dacca from 10-30 p. m. on March 25. The Army started killing the students, young men, teachers, professors, intellectuals, traders and others with tanks, artillery, mortar, machinegun and other deadly weapons. They demolished schools, colleges, mosques, temples, hostels and industrial areas and burnt innumerable houses. From March 26, they started this killing in cities like Jessore. Rangpur, Pabna, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Bogra, Tangail, Mymensingh and many other places. They bombed and strafed thousands of innocent people. They burnt the villages on the roadside and committed mass murder. Women and children were not spared. Women were molested and there was wide scale looting of foodstuff and livestock's. Shops and banks were looted by the soldiers. Women were kidnapped from schools and colleges. Who knows what has happened to them?
Has anybody heard of such atrocities? Is there any parallel in history? The examples of Chiang-kai-shek in China and Czar in Russia and of British oppression in undivided India or, the zulum of Zalem Yazid at Karbala pale into insignificance before this latest example of inhuman atrocity. The Yahya regime and supporters think that they will be able to crush the people of East Bengal permanently by such oppression, and they will be able to continue their exploitation by breaking the backbone of Bengalis. They thought of jelling the world that the people of Bengal did not want independence. They wanted to tell the world that Pakistan's cncmy India has created this movement by helping a handful of miscreants of East Bengal. But the people of the world cannot be misled. They knew why foreign correspondents were expelled from East Bengal on March 26. Is it not because the Pakistani rulers were afraid that the foreign press would expose the barbaric atrocity and tell the world of the great struggle for independence of the people of Bengal?
The foreign correspondents endangered their lives to get news of the war during the last world war. There is not a single instance in the history of the world of a dictator like Yahya who expelled the correspondents from the country. The barbaric Government not only prevented correspondents, but they prevented the International Red Cross from going there to render help to the people of Bengal who have been oppressed inhumanly and rendered homeless. They did this to cover up their own misdeeds. They wanted to ensure that the world would not know that the people of Bengal were prepared to give
