পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দশম খণ্ড).pdf/২৮০

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255 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র : দশম খন্ড garments of women, Locals told us that they used to bring women by force to their bunkers and used to do inhuman torture on them. Militia troops (Scouts) were very much fond of shaking hands with the women folk. Things were also very encouraging in all other theatres of war. Thought resisting with full energy enemy still failed miserably everywhere. Their morale went dawn to bottom. They felt totally unsecured Nature as it seemed went against them. On 26 Nov 71 we started advancing towards our next objective. The task given to me was to cut the Kanaighat-Durbast road. Kanaighat was a very strong point of enemy. Initially it was probably the next objective of 1" East Bengal to capture it. On the night of 26/27 Nov 71 I reached a village named Barachatal which was on both the side of that pucca road. We took up defensive position in that village blocking the complete withdrawal and reinforcement of the enemy at Kanaighat. The task was indeed a very difficult one. Enemy in no way could tolerate it. They gave a quick response. They started shelling our position from two sides with 105 mm artillery guns. Shells were falling on us like rainfall. On blocking that road what I presumed was that some attack will be launched definitely of Kanaighat from our side. Otherwise it was just meaningless to keep that road block for long. However, I kept the enemy movement completely stopped on that road till 30 Nov 71. It was one of the largest combined successful battles of our troops in Sylhet. Fall of Kanaighat was just disastrous to the enemy. After that defeat enemy had to withdraw straightway to Chorkai on the left and Haripur on the right. That victory of ours in fact brought the fall of whole Sylhet within our sight. On 1 Dec 71 at 1700 hours while we were still holding that road block, Lt Col Chitta Ranjan Datta came to me. After few chitchat he called me in one corner and told that we were supposed to attack Kanaighat just on the following dawn. I, of course, tried to convince him that it was absurd for us today for the following reasons: Firstly we were extremely tired. Secondly, we did not go to sleep for last three days. Third, we require replenishment of ammunitions etc. He did not however agree to my request because he said it was the order of the high Command. He also told me that some other big operations were just held up only because of Kanaighat. With great difficulty we started advancing towards Kanaighat a about 2000 hours. The distance we had to cover was about 12 miles cross-country. We however managed to reach our assembly area at 0200 hours of 2 Dec ’71. Kanaighat is a thana headquarter reasonably a flourished town on the bank of river Surma. Enemy strength was approx, a company plus a large number of armed Razakars. Enemy constructed all round defence of the town. Some of their bunkers were cemented. They have also mined the area very heavily. There was no approach whatsoever to their bunkers from any angle. We have no other alternative but to face them frontally. A complete battery of 120 mm mortars were in direct support of the enemy. On the other