পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৪৯

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড
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 Awami League's “insurgency” and to crush the Awami League militants throughout East Bengal.

 As the Pakistan army moved out into the countryside to crush the Awami League, all evidence-including the simple fact that the bulk of the refugees in India are Hindu-suggest this objective was coupled with a policy of terror directed primarily at the minority Hindu population.

 In some areas, according to eye-witness reports in late summer. Pakistan troops were painting large yellow “H” signs on Hindu shops, so as to identify the property of the minority which had become a special target. To show they were not Hindus, members of the Muslim majority-although not fully exempt from the army's terror-were painting signs saying “All Muslim House” on their homes and shops. In turn, the small community of Christians were putting crosses on their doors and stitching crosses in red thread on their clothes. Not since Nazi Germany were so many citizens of a country publicly marked with religious labels and symbols.

 Fear has gripped East Bengal since the devastating night of March 25. The World Bank mission, after spending several days traveling throughout East Bengal in early June, was forced to conclude:

 Perhaps most important of all, peoples fear to venture forth and, as a result, commerce has virtually ceased and economic activity generally is at a very ebb.

 Clearly, despite improvements in some areas and taking the province as a whole, widespread fear among the population has persisted beyond the initial phase of heavy fighting. It appears that this is not just a concomitant of the army extending its control into the countryside and the villages off the main highways, although at this stage the mere appearance of military units often suffices to engender fear. However, there is also no question that punitive measures by the military are continuing; even if directed at particular elements (such as known or suspected Awami Leagues, students, or Hindus). These have the effect of fostering fear among the population at large.

 Report after report over the summer months echoed the findings of the world bank report-as did hundreds of interviews with refugees in India, including new arrivals- interviewed by myself and members of the field team of the Sub-committee on Refugees this past August.

 Throughout this period our national leadership watched this tragedy in silence, at no time has any official of our Government, including the President, condemned the brutal and systematic-repression of East Bengal by the Pakistan army-a repression carried out in part with American guns and bullets and aircraft. And even in the last few weeks, as the Pakistan army dramatically escalated its terror and repression, our Nations sat in numbed silence.

 Now the administration tells us—8 months after March 25—that we should condemned, not the repression of the Pakistan army, but the response of India towards an increasingly desperate situation on its eastern borders-a situation which our Nation calculatedly ignored. Certainly, condemnation is justified; but what should we condemn?