পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৭

19 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড The fact that thousands of families have been compelled to take up their residence here with the monsoon now starting, in circumstances in which the space where the camps are situated is likely to be flooded in the near future if it is not flooded already-so that there will be barely enough standing room on dry ground for the numbers there, reflects the conditions from which the families fled. The food in the camps was adequate, but that food is costing the Indian Government one rupee per head per day-about 6 new pence. When one reflects that over 200 million Indian citizens are living well below the standard of one rupee per head per day, one can appreciate that this is a "strain which the Indian Government cannot possibly continue to bear by themselves for very long. It is essential that international aid be provided to help deal with the problem of the refugees, which is imposing a tremendous social and political problem on India, as well as a financial problem. But, apart from the problem for the refugees in India, we can only speculate about the conditions of those still in East Pakistan, I made a brief visit into East Pakistan on 24th April, without the knowledge or approval of the Indian Government, as they had told me that they would be concerned for my safety if I went inside. I was anxious to see what I could of the areas held by the Bangla Desh. I wanted, first, to get the story from the refugees, and the Right Hon. Member for Wednesbury and I spoke to a number of them in the camps. The stories they told were all extremely similar. I assure Hon. Members that we were careful not to make stories from those who pushed themselves forward to tell us of the atrocities that had occurred. We went to speak with families who were sitting by themselves disconsolately, and we asked them why they had left their villages. Time and again we were told the same story: troops of the West I Pakistan military authorities had entered the village, which had not then been defended, had shot the men in the fields and killed the women and children and then, having killed a great number of people from the village, had burnt it down and left. Inside Bangla Desh territory I met more refugees, who told me more or less the same story. These people were heading towards the Indian frontier. Their village, which was about four miles away from the point at which I met them, had been burnt down that morning. The refugees told us that crops were not being planted and that in the villages through which they had passed on their way to the Indian frontier, crops were not being planted, either. Only in areas controlled by the Bangladesh was any planting going on. It was abundantly clear that the hatred of the Punjabis, which has been generated in the last six weeks among the people of East Pakistan, who are overwhelmingly Bengali, is now so deep that it is quite impossible that Pakistan can ever again be one country. There have, no doubt, been atrocities on both sides. War is a foul business and killing begets more killing. We have heard conflicting reports from many sources, and particularly from the British Press, of the nature of the atrocities. On 2nd May the Sunday Times carried an account which appeared to present the entire situation as one in which all the atrocities