পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/১৯২

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড

 Of people-ordinary people-I ask that they continue to care and give. I ask that they refuse to accept that even one life is dispensable.

 It is, to me, inconceivable that we should do less.

 Brief background to the crisis-At Independence, in 1947, “British India" was divided into four parts: India, Burma, and East and West Pakistan; the latter united as one country by Mohammedanism but separated by a thousand miles, a different language and even a different script. It is as though Greece and Britain were one country, united by Christianity.

 For many years, the conflicting regionalism within Pakistan-the Bengalis in the East, the Pathans, the Punjabis, the Baluchis in the West-were held together by a tough military dictatorship. Power was held in few hands. Twenty-two families owned over half the industrial wealth of the country.

 For some years, the East has been getting a rough economic deal. In 1968, 55% of exports came from the East; yet 70 % of imports went to the West. Jute, providing 40% of the country's exports, comes almost entirely from the East. In the third fiveyear plan (1966-70), 52 % of the finance was allocated to the East: only 36% was spent there.

 In March 1969 Ayub Khan resigned and was succeeded by General Yahya Khan, who was determined to hand over to civilian rule. Poignantly, it was the first step to democracy-the general election of December 1970-which started the crisis. In this election, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the East Pakistan based Awami League, gained 167 out of the 169 seats in the Eastern Assembly and thereby control of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. His programme stopped only just short of secession for the East.

 In the West, Z. A. Bhutto of the People's Party won, and he boycotted the first meeting of the National Assembly, arranged for 3rd March 1971. Yahya Khan postponed the Assembly indefinitely. Murder and looting broke out in Dacca together with calls for independence for the East.

 On March 25", West Pakistani troops brought into the East struck to control Dacca and Chittagong, in anticipation of a Bengali mutiny. A bloodbath followed, of hideous proportions. Women and children were machine-gunned and raped. The army killed Bengalis indiscriminately. The Bengalis killed non-Bengalis. By early May hordes of refugees, 65% of them Hindu, were pouring across the borders of India; mute testimony to the massacres behind them.

 By mid June, 5 million had gathered: the largest exodus of people since the SS stalked Europe. The Indian Government set up camps to feed them, but there was a desperate lack of sanitation, shelter and fresh water. Cholera broke out. Then the monsoon came. And all the time more refugees, until the numbers reached their present level of nine million; and still they come, 15-40,000 a day.

 A call for assistance to Pakistan by Pope Paul-"Millions of human, beings are in conditions of extreme want. One disaster after another has struck those people who are extremely poor. There is no lack of news and the facts are frightening, revealing a