পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (তৃতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/৮৬৩

এই পাতাটির মুদ্রণ সংশোধন করা প্রয়োজন।

83| বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র withdrawal of martial law were pre-requisites to any settlement. After a period of protracted negotiations, President Yahya was expected to make a nationwide broadcast on March 25, 1971, announcing an agreement with the Awami League. Instead, he secretly left East Pakistan and at midnight his Army attacked a sleeping nation with tanks, artillery, machine guns flame throwers and every other weapon of destruction. Special targets of the Army were Bengali units of the Army; the members of the paramilitary force, East Pakistan Rifles; the civil police force; university teachers; members of the intelligentsia; young people; Awami League leaders and workers; industrial laborers; and members of the minority community-i.e., Hindus. Women, children and old people were not spared either. Everyone in sight was shot. Women were nailed to trees and then shot. Men were tied to jeeps and then dragged at the speed of sixty miles per hour. Women were raped to death and left to be devoured by dogs. Sleeping children were bayonetted to death. Young men from cordoned-off villages were picked up and their blood was drained off for the wounded soldiers till they were dead. Young girls were kidnapped and taken to garrisons for forcible prostitution. All properties within the range of the artillery were destroyed. City blocks were put, to the torch and residents were machine-gunned. The sadistic orgy of massacre and destruction is not over yet; it is still continuing in elected and the limited areas. Butchery of unarmed people so far has taken a toll of a million lives. Another nine million had to flee the country to save their lives, leaving their hearth and home and becoming destitute refugees. The flight of this mass of humanity can be comprehended only by imagining the total evacuation of the City of New York. Declaration of Independence Political and economic exploitation was tolerated by Bengalis in the hope that change' in political power structure would remedy the evils. But when the army launched its genocidal attack it became apparent that living together by East and West was no longer possible. The elected representatives of East Pakistan declared East Pakistan independent, renaming it "BANGLADESH," thus relieving the unwilling minority in West Pakistan from the fear of domination by majority Bengalis. The dreamland of Pakistan created by people expressing their wishes through ballots has been destroyed by vested interests expressing power through bullets. People of Bangladesh through their elected representatives and with their blood have given their verdict in favor of Independent Bangladesh. Prepared and Published by the BANGLADESH MISSION 1223 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Fourth Floor Washington, D.C. 20036 September 1971