পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৪১

409 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড returned it is impossible to establish whether this will happen in practice. Returning refugees will probably have difficulty in recovering their property from the hands of Biharis and Moslem fanatics who are now high in the favor of the military authorities. Under the peace committees come the razakars, Home Gurrd-type volunteers who are paid a small wage are armed to help the police in preventing sabotage by the Mukti Fauj. Many of them are simply local thugs. There are cases of criminal charges dropped if the accused men join the razakars, and one case of a man who, although legally disqualified for life from ever carrying a weapon, is low using a Lee Enfield. It is the peace committees and razakars, a mixture of opportunist collaborators, bigots and toughs whom the Mukti Fauj guerrillas have chosen as their prime target. They have killed a fair number of them. The military authorities in Dacca are conscious of the need to attract more respectable civilian support. Indeed General Farman Ali, who is in charge of civil affairs in East Pakistan has publicly admitted that there are some bad characters on the peace committees. But time is not on the military government's side. The Mukti Fauj has shown that it can operate even in Dacca and its actions are already a powerful deterrent to those Bengalis who might be willing to play along with the authorities. And so long as the Mukti Fauj continues to operate however sporadically the government will find it difficult to treat any Bengali in any position of authority. Apart from the 60,00X) troops and 5,000 West Pakistani police it has brought in, the governments seems to have tried to keep its "colonial profily" as low as possible. But West Pakistani civil servants have been brought in to head homes department and information ministry and as district commissioners for Dacca and Chittagong: there has been a purge of Pakistan International Airlines where some 850 flight and ground staff have been dismissed since March. Security is essential in PIA because it is the only link between the country's two wings. Nor is time on the president's side if the Mukti Fauj continue to make the economy another of their price targets. Quite apart from their sabotaging of Bridges and communications, which is largely aimed at hamstringing army movements they have started a concerted campaign against East Pakistan main crops, jute and tea. Very Little- which is Pakistan's main foreign exchange earner is reaching the mills, because growers and dealers have received anonymous letters from the Mukti Fauj telling them not to move it. Many of the letters bear smudged postmarks indicating that postal workers are helping the guerrillas in their own. And little of the jute that gets to the mills is being bated because of labor troubles between Bengalis and Biharis. Tea which is grown near Sylhet in the north-east, has been badly hit. Some estate have been shelled from across the Indian border and the Mukti Fauj has blown up eight processing factories. But so far there seems to be little pressure on President Yahya from West Pakistan. News about East Pakistan is heavily censored, and the only West Pakistanis learn about army casualties is from Indian broadcast. And although the economic Squeeze is already on, the business lobby is too timid to make representations to the President. Only Mr. Bhutto makes occasional complaints about continued martial law, and that simply because he wants to use his electoral majority in West Pakistan.