| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| ‘ইয়োথ ফর বাংলাদেশ’- এর একটি আবেদন | প্রচারপত্র | ১০জুন, ১৯৭১ |
YOUTH FOR BANGLADESH: AN APPEAL
A tragedy too deep for tears, titanic in proportions stalks West Bengal. The rest of India may have read or heard about it, but the people at large in the subcontinent have yet to show a burning concern or involve themselves personally and individually with the unprecedented crisis that deepens each day like a gathering storm before it overwhelms this state and engulfs the country.
The ghastly upheaval in East Bengal which we emphatically declared not to treat as Pakistanis internal affairs and yet treated it as such has now become very much our own affair! In course of the past 6 weeks, FIFTY LAKHS of refugees from Pakistani terror exceeding 10% of crowded West Bengal’s population-have poured into West Benga. They are still coming in at the rate of 60,000 a day and there is no abatement in sight. Experts Estimate the total figure to go up to the region of ONE CRORE.
The long term esffects of this eolossal influx will doubtless be left acutely through the rest of this Century.
But the harrowing distress of this vast multitude who left everything and have trekked without proper food for weeks and the serious problems arising there from have to be tackled NOW and constitute supreme challenge to the nation as a whole and specifically to the Youth of India.
Of the 50,00,000 nearly 20 lakhs are living under trees or in open unprotected grounds, Rains arrived early this year. The fate of these 2 million, exposed to heavy showers and cold nights can be imagined. Especially the condition of little children, some of whom have lost one or both parents by pakisani bullets or in epidemics, beggars description.
Conditions in the camps due to shortages of food, medicines, space and personnel is frightening. Where death is a frequent and daily visitor.
As if this was not enough. Cholera has broken out in an epidemic from and is spreading fast. The 50-mile route from Krishnamagar to Shikkarpur on the border is dotted with the dead and the dying. The stench of rotting fresh fouls the air. Harrowing scenes of babies sucking at dead mother’s breasts, lone widow till fanning the cold forehead of dead husband, of dogs tearing up the bodies of these two weak to resist, line the roads-in our border districts. The heart-ending sight of little bewildered children suddenly orphaned by cholera guarding their parent’s bodies on lonely roadsides are not uncommon.
Cholera, according to conservative estimates, has killed over 3000 refugees. But this is only beginning! The epidemic is spreading fast. Emergency has just been declared
