| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| কোলকাতায় আর্চবিশপের বিবৃতিঃ শরণার্থীদের নিরাপদ প্রত্যাবর্তনের ব্যবস্থা করতে হবে’ | হিন্দুস্তান স্ট্যাণ্ডার্ড | ২২ মে ১৯৭১ |
ARCHBISHOP OF CALCUTTA SAYS:
CONDITIONS MUST BE CREATED FOR SAFE
RETURN OF EVACUEES
The Most Rev. L. T. Picachy, Archbishop of Calcutta, Feels that repatriation of evacuees from West Bengal is the real answer to the problem of the increasing influx. In a statement, he says that it is the duty of the nations of the world to persuade the authorities to guarantee freedom and safety to everyone in East Bengal on humanitarian grounds.
The statement says that while relief for the sufferers is an immediate need, it is not the ultimate solution to an agonizing problem. The U.N team found that evacuees desired to return home as soon as peaceful conditions there were re-established. But repatriation is impossible unless stable and peaceful condition are specdily established in West Bengal.
The Archbishop says that the nations of the world have persistently refused to get involved in the tremendous sufferings of the people of West Bengal and have brushed aside all responsibility with the callous remark: “that a purely internal affair.” This rigid attitude “has caused surprise and sorrow in our part of the world. When we watch three million battered and homeless people forced to abandon their country to seek shelter in the austerity of a refugee camp we claim that their welfare demands international interest. Democratic rights are championed and safeguarded all over the world. Yet here are over 70 million who have been crushed under the military heel of their own nation and all this only because they scored a resounding poll victory at a free and fair election.” The statement says.
It has been officially confirmed that three Catholic priests have been killed in West Bengal.
The Church in the dioceses of Shillong, Silchar, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Dumka, Jalpaiguri, and Krishnagar is conscious of the heavy political overtones of the conflict in the neighboring country. But neutrality may never stifle the claims of charity. Priests religious and laity of all the dioceses have set out resolutely to help.
Prayer meetings and penitential services were services were organized. April 4 was a day of prayer in the Calcutta Archdiocese. On April 18 the parishioners of St Teresa and Fatima. Calcutta went in procession to Our Lady of Fatima Shrine to pray for the safety of Archbishop T. A. Ganguly of Dacca and the other prelates, Clergy, religious and laity of the dioceses of East Bengal. The Prayers took on a personal note as thousands of Catholics in East India still have close relations in East Bengal. There is little or no news of them, the statement says.
