While they may have some reservations about their Indian liberators, it was clear the Bengalis were overjoyed to be free from the West Pakistanis, who for the past eight months have slaughtered them by the tens of thousands in a vain attempt to stamp out Bengali nationalism.
Mass killings charged
The retreating Pakistanis left a trail of blasted bridges and stories of mass killing Indian army engineers, with commendable efficiency, rigged pontoon bridges and by- passes over the larger streams.
In town after town, excitable Bengalis told of mass murders by Pakistani troops. One man told how the Pakistanis came in search of a Mukti Bahini (Bengali freedom- fighter) leader named Ghillal, a common name in these parts. When they failed to find him, they shot everybody in the village by that name-10 people in all, the Bengalis said.
