পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৪০

408 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ১৬০। বাংলায় পাকিস্তানীদের দিন ইকনমিষ্ট ৩১ জুলাই, ১৯৭১ শেষ হয়ে এসেছে THE ECONOMIST, LONDON, JULY31, 1971 TIME IS RUNNING OUT IN BENGAL A first small step to getting Bengal refugees back home has been achieved in Pakistan's acceptance of United Nations observers in East Pakistan. India rejected this week the suggestion that there should be observers on its side of the bonjLr too. But the main obstacle to the refugees' return remains the situation deep inside East Pakistan. This is not helped by the fact that the Pakistani army has had nothing but praise from President Yahya, when it is obvious to anyone who travels around East Pakistan that it has used excessive force. The damage done throughout the province has been colossal, and there was a methodicalness about it that belies the official story that the soldiers only fired when fired upon. Worst hit are the bazaar areas, where they could wreak the maximum damage with the maximum of firepower. The province's main roads are lined with burnt-out huts, and most areas around crossroads and bridges have been more or less cleared of human habitation. The army's claim that only eight soldiers, none of officers, have been punished for excesses is hardly reassuring. There are reports that at least one brigadier has been relieve of his command. It might impress foreign aid donors and the refugees if the authorities made this sort of disciplinary action police. But West Pakistanis are terribly touchy about any criticism of the army, which has played a central part in their lives since the creation of Pakistan. Most of the refugees are Hindus-nearly 6 million out of a total of nearly 7 million. The reassurance which the president has offered the Hindus have been offset by his insistence that new constitution will be more Islamic than ever; and it still unclear how for the army has stopped the Hindu-bashing in which it clearly indulged earlier. On June 21st two days after one the president's speeches of reassurance, Dacca's most famous Hindu temple was pulled down. And since then the villages that have been sacked for "harboring miscreants" have been mainly Hindu ones. Hindu refugees are still pouring out of East Pakistan. Those interviewed, on the border all say they are leaving because it is being make clear to them that they will have no place in the future Pakistan. Apart from the arm, the people they complain of are the Bengali members of the right-wing religious parties Jamaat Islami and the Moslem League, which were crushed in last December 'elections' and the Biharis who came as Moslem refugees from India. It is these two groups that the new "peace committees have been formed. Until now these committees have been busy providing the army with information about Awami League members and Hindus. Hut now that so many people have fled then play an important in the forming of allotment committees that appoint "caretakers" for abandoned property. Officially, half of the income from this property should go into a relief fund and the property should be handed back intact to any refugees who return. Since so few have