পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৬৩৯

607 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড the cover of a curfew. The student leaders, most of whom were active Naxalites and responsible for attacks on West Pakistani families, were the first targets. At least 100 of them were shot immediately after arrest. Others were killed while trying to make their escape. The Awami League extremists meanwhile took their revenge and massacred as many non-Bengali as they could get hold of. The dream of a political settlement had been shattered with such speed that those of us who were still Roping for a compromise were taken completely aback. Once the army action started, the Awami Leaguers in villages and remote towns began murdering the non-Bengalis whom they feared to be "spies." In any case they were afraid that non-Bengalis would help the army identify the activists. So they killed the Biharis, the Punjabis and others out of sheer fright. In Dacca alone some 10,000 people have been killed while some people put the number as high as half a million. But there are no means of establishing any true figure. Many people have left the town and still hiding in villages. So, their relatives and friends think they are dead. My own friends had written me off as dead while I was in hiding. So the number of those presumed dead is being reduced every day. Most of us do not believe that Mujib wanted secession, although the student leaders and their friends in the leadership did want it. My own reckoning is that Mujib wanted to separate East Bengal from Pakistan in the long run-not immediately -but was forced to speed up his work and reveal his plans under pressure from the Naxalites and Bengali nationalists in Calcutta. I cannot say what will happen next. No one can. The army is in military control but the political problem remains untouched. The trouble is that so much hatred and suspicion has been created that it is difficult to start a dialogue between the people and the army. Even the Bengali civil servants who agree to co-operate with the army are still suspect. Hundreds of civil servants have been flown here from West Pakistan and their task is to keep a watch on the East Pakistani civil servants. I don't know what is the situation outside Dacca, but I heard that Chittagong and Cox's Bazar have been bombed by army planes and shelled by the navy. It seems that some fighting is also going on in the north-east. But unless India intervenes openly, the Bangladesh forces would have no chance against the well-trained and highly disciplined soldiers of Tikka Khan. With Mujib in goal the Awami Leaguers have no recognized leader and rivalries and jealousies among his colleagues have already started. It will take a very, very long time before the two-halves of Pakistan can forget what happened here. I hope it will not take too long because with every day that passes, the chances of an understanding are reduced. It would be easier for the East Pakistanis to talk to West Pakistani political leaders. But the West Pakistani political leaders themselves have no say in politics-not for the time being at least. Furthermore, we have the Indians who are sure to claim they must be made a party to a settlement. With Mujib in goal they are talking on his behalf and