Mr. Samsul Alam Dudu. the organizing secretary of the Awami League in Kushtia district, describes how the liberation front of all political parties routed the Army.
"There were about 300 Punjabi soldiers stationed in the town of Kushtia at about midnight on March 3” “They suddenly took up positions and captured the telephone exchange and all main installations. They imposed a curfew in the district without telling anyone and the next morning they started to shoot down people, men and women, like, dogs and cats."
Mr. Dudu estimates that about 200 people were killed on that day. Ag in all other towns, the army's first target was the East Pakistan Rifles. After capturing the men in Kushtia, they rounded up politicians and all potential leaders in the town.
Mr. Dudu said that they planned their counter-attack at about 4.30 on Monday morning. A huge crowd of about 30,000, armed with sticks and stones, surrounded (he 300 Army men who retreated to the district school house. “About 300 East Pakistan Rifles men and Ansars from (he district came in with their rifles. The Army men used cannon and mortars on the crowd, but after a 28-hours battle, their ammunition ran out", he said.
Some of them were killed on the spot when the crowd advance on the school. Others who managed to escape in civilian clothes in the middle of the night, were later recognized by villagers as Punjabis and were beaten (to death .
But the situation is not as bright as the liberation front claims. Mr. Dudu admits that food is running short and the front is without medical supplies. But more seriously, he admits, the resistance is being carried out on an adhoc regional basis, and there does not appear to be any central leadership coordinating the fight.
"The West Pakistan Army controls all the communications links in (he major towns, so we have no communications system as such", he adds.
