পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/২০৯

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খণ্ড
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  Yahya, almost boastfully, told a recent visitor, “My generals are pushing for a military trial for Mujib and for his execution. I have agreed and the trial will be held soon". No policy could be more short-sighted or more likely to harden Bengali resistance. As one western diplomat told me, “Yahya is simply out of his mind. He still does not even understand what his army had done. He thinks they can kill off a couple of hundred thousand people, try Mujib for treason, force a return to order and all will be forgotten. This is utter nonsense. These people will not forget".

Guerrilla Resistance

 Indeed, the minds of Bengalis are emblazoned with the memories of these months of terror. Despite the terror signs of resistance to the army creep up everywhere. In Dacca, street urchins hawking the local papers slip mimeographed communiqués from the Government-in-exile into the newspapers. On ferry boats in the countryside, where all passengers are under the watchful eyes of the army, strangers slide up and whisper of massacres or point out areas in the dense Madhupur Jungle where the “Mukti Bahini” or Liberation Army, is hiding. All over the country, the resistance is rapidly taking on the earmarks of a classic guerrilla war. And East Pakistan is ideal guerrilla terrain reminiscent of South Vietnam's Mekong Delta-a labyrinth of sunken paddies, jute fields and banana groves.

 That the Mukti Bahini are capitalizing on their few assets is brought home daily. They have cut the key railroad to Dacca from the port of Chittagong and have also severed the parallel road. More than 60 per cent of the interior food supplies move over those routes and there is virtually no prospect of restoring them until peace is also restored. The rebel's recent coup in blowing up three power stations in Dacca has under- scored the point that no city or village is safe from their campaign to bring the economy to a halt. Most important, however, is the fact that the rebels now seem to be winning what every guerrilla needs-the support of the populace. Two months ago, villagers in Noakhali province pleaded with the Mukti Bahini not to blow up a bridge because it would bring army retaliation. Last week, those same villagers sought the guerrillas and asked them to destroy the bridge.

 To be sure, the guerrillas are no match for the federal army. While they have rallied some 20,000 Bengali fighters to their cause (and expect another 10.0000 recruits to join them next month after clandestine training in India), the inadequately armed rebels still face 60,000 well-equipped professional soldiers. And despite its coven aid, India has cautiously hesitated to recognize the Bangladesh government-in-exile. One reason for this restraint is the genuine and costly problem the New Delhi government faces in caring for the 6 million Bengali refugees now in India. NEWSWEEK'S Tony Clifton who has reported the anguish of the refugees since the beginning of Pakistan's civil war, filed this report last week from Calcutta:

 The strain on India has become almost unbearable. The refugees are still swarming across the border in hordes ranging as high as 40,000 a day, and as P. N. Luthra. The former Indian Army Officer in charge of the refugee program told me, “I am now responsible for the care of a small country". It is costing India $3 million a day to feed.