পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (পঞ্চম খণ্ড).pdf/৪৫৯

435 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ পঞ্চম খন্ড the B.B.C. recently reported that the Pakistan army was not in a position to post its personnel at all the would be strong-holds of freedom fighters and strategic bridges. In short, the army is feeling the punch strongly. Recent history has shown that an army, however powerful, cannot crush a whole people. The flame of freedom has been lighted in Bangladesh. The atrocities committed by the West Pakistani army have embittered the hearts of the East Bengal people. The freedom fighters are gaining in experience and strength and time is on their side. Well, violence was Islamabad's own choice. ২৮ জুলাই, ১৯৭১ Much is now known about the genocide carried out in East Bengal by the West Pakistan military rulers. They have made such a thorough job of it that if Hitler were to come to life, he would not find anything lacking in the methods of his modern disciples. The most conservative estimates put the number of those killed at a quarter million. Seven million East Bengalis have had to flee to India to save their lives and honor. Before the world today, the name of the military junta of Islamabad is mud. Yet, to hoodwink public opinion, the Pakistani militarists are issuing appeals to the refugees to return to East Bengal, claiming complete normalcy in the region. They have even opened reception centers for returning refugees. A correspondent of the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, recently visited one of 5: these camps and reported that its entire population was five stray dogs. During the past few weeks, Parliamentary delegations from Britain, Canada and Ireland have toured East Bengal. They all got the impression that an atmosphere of terror prevailed there. The Islamabad rulers seem to have learnt even more than mass murder "techniques from the book of the Nazis. Information trickling though, despite censorship, shows that East, Bengal has been turned into a police state. It is today a valley of fear, where a Gestapo type inquisition is going on. To such government employees as are still attending offices, a questionnaire has been issued by the martial law authorities. One of the questions to be answered specifically is: Did you vole for the Awami League? 'Another, are you a Bengali? What great crimes! A graphic account of conditions in East Bengal has been given by a correspondent of the Los Angeles Time's Jack Foisie. Dacca, he says, is a city in which fear is the dominant emotion. There is ghostly emptiness in the streets at night. At dusk, the workers hurry to their homes or to the homes of kinsfolk if their walls are thicker and doors stronger. Says Foisie: "After a quickly eaten monotonous meal of rice and greens, and may be a bit of curried fish, the oil lamp is extinguished and the door is barred. There is the belief that a darkened house is less likely to receive a visit from the authorities." The cause of the fear, the correspondent says, is what several people, in furtive conversations, have described as the 'inquisition'. He adds, "In all nocturnal poundings of the door, the object appears to the same. Information about the whereabouts of rebels; the recruiting of informers, who do so to save their own skins; or the ravishing of their women; or just a visit for the pleasure of intimidating; or to collect payment to be left alone." He narrates