পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪১৮

386 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড the town. Light drizzle was beginning to wet the uniforms of Captain Azhar and the four jawans riding in the exposed escort jeep behind us. We turned a corner and found a convoy of trucks parked outside the mosque. I counted seven, all filled with jawans in battledress. At the head of the column was a jeep. Across the road two men, supervised by a third, were trying to batter down the door of one of more than a hundred shuttered shops lining the road. The studded teak wood door was beginning to give under the combined assault of two axes as Major Rathore brought the Toyota to a halt. "What the hell are you doing?" The tallest of the trio, who was supervising the break in, turned and peered at us. "Moia," (Fatty) he shouted, "what the hell do you think we are doing?" Recognising the voice, Rathore grew a water-melon smile. It was, he informed me, his old friend "Ifty"-Major Iftikhar of the 12th Frontier Force Rifles. Rathore: "I thought someone was looting" Iftikhar: "Looting? No. We are on kill and burn." Waving his hand to take in the shops, he said he was going to destroy the lot. Rathore: "How many did you get?" Iftikhar smiled bashfully. Rathore: "Come on. How many did you get?" Iftikhar: "Only twelve. And by God we were lucky to get them. We would have lost those, too, if I hadn't sent my men from the back." Prodded by Major Rathore, Iftikhar then went on to describe vividly how after much searching in. Hajiganj he had discovered twelve Hindus hiding in a house on the outskirts of the town. These had been "disposed of." Now Major Iftikhar was on the second part of his mission: burn. In front of the shop a small display cabinet was crammed with patent medicines, cough syrups, some bottles of mango squash, imitation jewellery, reels of coloured thread and packets of knicker elastic. Iftikhar kicked it over, smashing the light woodwork into kindling. Next he readied out for some jute shopping bags on one shelf. He took some plastic toys from another. A bundle of handkerchiefs and a small bolt of red cloth joined the pile on the floor. Iftikhar heaped them all together and borrowed a box from one of the jawans sitting in our Toyota. The jawan had ideas of his own. Jumping from the vehicle he ran to the shop and tried to pull down one of the umbrellas hanging from the low ceiling of shop. Iftikhar ordered him out. Looting, he was sharply reminded, was against orders. Iftikhar soon had a fire going. He threw burning jute bags into one corner of the shop; the bolt of cloth into another. The shop began to blaze. Within minutes we could hear the