বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র
Hundreds of thousands of Bengalis are being slaughtered. Murder, arson, looting and raping is the order of the day. Why? Because they voted for autonomy. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, their beloved leader is on trial for committing “treason" because he won an election which has no parallel in democracies and further because he refused to compromise on the programme of autonomy for which the Bengalis voted from him. The Awami League is a democratic political party, firmly anchored in democratic and constitutional methods. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is devoted to democracy. He has an unflinching faith in democratic and peaceful politics. He sought to realize the demand of the people through non-violent means.
The NEW YORK TIMES writes on March 28 “the resistance which began after a surprise attack on the civilian population by the Government forces three nights ago, sprang from a non-violent drive for provincial autonomy. The East Pakistanis tried to claim the majority political power they had won in the election last December and the army moved to prevent this."
Along the same lines the BALTIMORE SUN writes on April 4, “the West Pakistan Army has shown every sign of being prepared to send its last soldier to more populous East Bengal, if necessary, in an all-out effort to shoot to death the results of last December s elections."
Referring to Yahya Khan, THE GUARDIAN in an editorial of April 6, says “What he has done, and is doing, is to use his army to oppress the East Pakistanis and their chosen leaders. Not did negotiations collapse in any ordinary sense. The President did not want Sheikh Mujib to assume the power that his people had voted him. So the President
reached for his gun"..............." The East Pakistanis are an impoverished people who are being punished for having- voted in a way that annoyed the President. By sending in the army he has shown himself to be not only careless of democratic rights, but a reckless ruler as well. The military intervention in East Pakistan was a deliberate act."
THE GUARDIAN in its editorial of April 14, wrote, “the Bangladesh affairs is not a second Biafra or the fruits of more interminable wrangling between Delhi and Rawalpindi. It arose simply when a well-conducted, peaceful election produced a result the army could not stand. Sheikh Mujib himself has not, in any certain sense, declared Bengali independence. He was not asking essentially for more than the programme he legally fought and won the election on."
Referring to the background of the present situation and the economic exploitation of the East by the vested interests of West Pakistan, the SUNDAY TIMES writes on April 18.... “the political programme of Sheikh Mujib's Awami League, overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of East Pakistan in the recent elections, sought to correct these disparities by transferring control over economic policy from the Central Government to the Provinces. The response of Yahya Khan's Government was to unleash a reign of terror whose full dimensions are only gradually becoming known."
