পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৮৬

বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ২৩। বাঙালী যোদ্ধাদের সঙ্গে নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস ১৪ এপ্রিল, ১৯৭১ THE NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 14, 1971 WITH THE BANGLA FORCES While the central government, which is dominated by West Pakistan, continues to announce that the situation is calm in the East and conditions are returning to normal, a far different picture emerges on the scene. Daily battles are reliably reported in many sectors. Hordes of East Pakistanis have fled the cities to seek refuge or join the secessionist army, and thousands of refugees, carrying their meager belongings in cardboard Suitcases and sacks, are crossing into India for temporary haven. The correspondent saw Pakistani soldiers burning villages to deny the resistance forces-cover or hiding places. As the smoke from the thatch and bamboo huts billowed up on the outskirts of the city of Comilla, circling vultures descended and the bodies of peasants, already being picked apart by dogs and crows. There is no way of knowing exactly how many of East Pakistan's 75 million Bengalis the army has killed, but authoritative reports from army sources agree that the figure is at least in the tens of thousands; some reports put it much higher. The central Government officially bars all foreign newsmen from East Pakistan. But from the evidence available in secessionist-held rural areas some of which are occasionally contested by the army-the Pakistani armed forces have killed leaders and potential leaders of East Pakistan and shattered the economic base of the region in their effort to crush the independence movement. On orders, the army-now consisting entirely of West Pakistani troops—has killed students, intellectuals, professors, engineers, doctors and others leadership caliberwhether they were directly involved with the nationalist movement or not. Both in military attacks and in executions, the central Government's forces killed East Pakistani Army officers and soldiers who were unable to break out and join the guerrilla forces when the army offensive began on March 25. Most of the officers' families have been killed; only a few escaped into hiding. With the aid of air and naval bombardment, the army has destroyed food supplies, tea factories, jute mills and natural gas fields-the economic basis of East Pakistan. "This has already set the country back 25 years," said a Scottish tea-estate manager who fled to India from his plantation in the northeast. "The liberation army, trying to stop the army, is blowing the bridges, railroad lines and roads. Even if they eventually win independence, they'll have to start completely from scratch again.