পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (তৃতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/৮৩৬

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র

 The AFP Correspondent Brian May said.......... “the intensity of ringing gunfire that raged all night and continued sporadically throughout Friday made it seem likely that the death toll in the city ran into several thousands... It appeared that the Army had disarmed the Police force which consists mainly of Bengalis."

 Robert Kaylor of UPI said “soldiers carrying torches are seen going towards the office of 'the People" newspaper near the Hotel. There is some shouting and firing and the office is set on fire.......... Huge columns of smoke rise from the direction of the University. If troops have attacked with heavy weapons, the carnage will be tremendous. The students at the University are crammed into dormitories that hold about 400 each."

 Michael Clayton of BBC reported “the troops carried out a ruthless operation on Thursday night to intimidate the people of Dacca."

 Simon Dring, another eye-witness, of the DAILY TELEGRAPH, London, wrote on March 30, “caught by surprise, some 200 students were killed in Iqbal Hall when their rooms were sprayed with Machinegun fire.....the military removed many of the bodies but the 30 bodies still there could never have accounted for all the blood in the corridors of Iqbal Hall. He further said “people asleep in the Bazar were shot In the morning the victims were still lying there with rugs on them, as if they were still sleeping. On the morning of March 26 the firing stopped and silence prevailed all over Dacca. Suddenly the city was again filled by troops and for 11 hours they went about systematically destroying the entire old city of Dacca". He further said “the Army shot every person in the old city and burnt people inside their homes. The biggest massacre was in the Hindu locality. The army then rushed to its next target, the centre of Sheikh Mujib's supporters The carnage continued tin the night". (Simon Dring was a Journalist who escaped the expulsion of 26th night and hid himself in one of the rooms of the Hotel Inter-continental. On morning of March 27 when the unannounced curfew was withdrawn Dring had a look at the killing and destruction with his own eyes.)

 Peter Hazelhurst of THE TIMES, London, quoting a student who survived three days of carnage in Dacca University, said “some people were ordered to dig a huge grave. The Pakistani soldiers told 8 or 9 bearers to sit down. After a while they were directed to stand and line up near the grave. The guns fired again and they fell next to the bodies of my friends".

 John Woodruff writes in THE BALTIMORE SUN on March 30 under the headline “Yahya planned attack on East Pakistan', “the first Radio broadcast announcing a curfew was made in mid-morning, 8 hours after foreign newsmen watched soldiers turn a jeep- mounted Machinegun without warning on 15 empty handed youths who walked towards them slowly, shouting defiance".

 Michel Laurent of Associated Press reports in NEW YORK POST “touring the still burning battle areas Saturday and yesterday, one found the burnt bodies of some students still in their dormitory beds. The tanks had made direct hits on the dormitories. A mass grave had been hastily filled in at the Jagannath Hall, 200 students were reported killed in Iqbal Hall. About 29 bodies were still on the ground and in the dormitories".