REIGN OF TERROR STILL BY ARMY IN EAST BENGAL
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, June 29, 1971
MAYS MP By Clare Hollinworth in Dacca
The British Parliamentary Delegation to East Bengal led by Mr. Arthur Bottomley, Labour MP for Middlesbrough East left Dacca for Calcutta yesterday in a frustrated and gloomy mood.
He had spent some hours in a vain attempt to visit Boliadi, a village 15 miles north of Dacca, which was destroyed at dawn on Sunday morning by the West Pakistan Army.
For reasons not yet explained six villages have recently been razed to the ground in this area, to the north of the small industrial town of Tongi, and firing can still be heard there.
Mr. Toby Jessel, Conservative MP for Thickening, commenting to the British Press, said: “The reign of terror which has been Imposed here is not conducive to the restoration of tho economic life of the country”.
Drawing on his experiences with the fact-finding mission during tho past four days Mr. Jessel said the disappearance •of local people and the sacking of village add to the great fear Bengalis already have of the Pakistani Army.
“Trigger-Happy”
“The generals must stop the trigger-happy and arbitrary actions of many units,” he said. “I could not put my hand on my heart and recommend anyone to return to Pakistan if they were Hindu or had any connection with Awami League”.
“Indeed I doubt whether it is safe for anyone to return to East Pakistan from India with the Army in its present mood.”
One step towards restoring confidence might be, said Mr. Jessel, the replacement of Lt.-Gen. Tikka Khan in the post of Military Governor by a soldier who knew something of how to win the hearts and minds of Bengalis.
Mr. Jessel claimed the Pakistani authorities were trying to “have it both ways” by their emphatic statements that the- Feni bridge between Dacca and Chittagong was destroyed by Indian officers coming from across the border.
At the same time they razed to the ground scores of villages near the bridge because they had harbored Bangladesh guerrillas.
Mr. Reginald Prentice, Labour MP for East Ham North,, though not so forthright, said he toured the Barisal area in the delta on Sunday last, and order was not yet restored, although he had heard an impressive weight of reports of repressive army action against nearby villages.
Mr. Bottomley told the local Press that “they had seen many terrible things,” The RAF Hercules aircraft, carrying the delegation from Dacca to Calcutta was yesterday forbid¬den to enter Indian air space. It took a quarter of an hour of radio exchanges between the crew and ground control in Calcutta before the aircraft was allowed to land.
Death And Hatred In Chittagong
BY Our Staff Correspondent in Chittagong
The army has restored order in Chittagong, the vital port of East Pakistan. After a series of atrocities committed by both Bengalis and Bihari Moslems, the martial law authorities, destroyed scores of villages by fire, artillery and bulldozers.
The sullen hatred, fear and mistrust between the West Pakistan authorities and the local Bengali population remains open and intense.
Indeed the army here admits over one third of the working population is still hiding in the countryside, there is little traffic in the streets and many shops are shut. Although the night curfew has been relaxed there is firing throughout the night.
A Colonel explained this by saying : “Our fire power is greater than theirs. When we discover any resistance we destroy the house and the surrounding area to demonstrate to the local population what will happen to them if they harbor Bangladesh guerrillas.”
The army hope that the vital bridge at Feni, 65 miles to the north-west will be repaired by 5th July, thus enabling distribution of goods from the clogged harbor to begin. Foreign experts are skeptical for there is a great deal of work still to be done on this rail crossing, which was skilfully destroyed, either by Bangladesh guerrillas or Indian Army sappers.
Although the martial law authorities claim there are now only 1,000 local inhabitants under detention, Bengali leaders in private claim that each night some 100 people are brought in by the army for questioning and only five or six allowed to return.
This was confirmed by foreign non British residents who added that the inhabitants were often “threatened” by the Army and made to open shops or attend offices because they were too afraid or cowed to disobey. But after threats or interrogation the Bengalis concerned took the first possible opportunity to cross the frontier into India.
Doubtless senior officers here in the Delta are having problems with their own troops, who went on the rampage immediately after they had occupied the towns and are still not always easy to control.
British residents, to a man, are strong supporters of President Yahya Khan, and anxious that financial aid should be resumed. They are full of praise for the manner in which the Army is maintaining order, but their views are not shared by other foreign residents, nervy the Bengalis.
Yahya Plans Constitution in 4 Months
By M.F.H. BEG from Karachi.
President Yahya Khan announced yesterday that he had set up a committee' to draft a • constitution so 'that Pakistan could return to civilian rule.
In a nation-wide broadcast the President said he hoped to transfer power to elected representatives in a matter of four months or so. “The precise timing will naturally depend on the internal and external situation at the time” he said.
Various leaders of the National Assembly would be consulted in preparing the draft constitution, which would be worked out after studying a number of existing constitutions. President Yahya said: “The constitution shall also provide-full social and economic justice to various sections of our society. The constitution must be a Federal one and it must have all the characteristics of a Federal Constitution.
There will not be fresh elections before the new constitution is introduced” he said.
President Yahya said he had banned the Awami League. The League won all but two of the seats in East Pakistan at the December elections.
EDITORIAL
East Pakistan’s Future
President Yahya Khan’s constitutional plans after the upheavals in East Pakistan are accompanied by grim reports of the situation in that crucified province. It is now several weeks since he held out the prospect of finding enough representative East Pakistanis to set up a provincial administration and co-operate somehow with West Pakistani politicians to form a civilian national Government. He must have been deplorably out of touch with v/hat was and had been, going on, and now sets more modest and distant goals.
That he rules out fresh elections goes without saying. It is the tragedy of this well-meaning man, and a sobering reflection for the ardent reformers, that the first genuinely free elections, courageously implemented by him resulted in bloodbath that followed. First the general breakdown of law and order. Then the mob murdering West Pakistanis. Then the civil war with Western troops proceeding with brutality, often with savagery, Against independence fighters and liberal politicians alike. And fourthly the massacre of East Bengali Hindus by East Pakistan Moslems, with the army tolerating,abetting or participating.
Official assurances, before the Press was allowed back into East Pakistan, That conditions were well on the way back to normal were rudely shattered last week by the first cable from In Chittagong is now shown to be rather worse. No wonder the Parliamentary delegation could not honestly encourage the six million refugees to return.
President Yahya, dropping the Constituent Assembly, has set up a committee to draft a constitution for a return to civilian rule in four months or so—but longer if the internal and external situation is not propitious. There seems little hope that either will be. He praises the Army for its suppression of the threatened secession, and while promising maximum provincial autonomy, makes it clear that central control will be much stronger than if the compromise rejected by Sheikh Mujib, the Eastern leader, who won the election and is now in prison. Evidently East Pakistan is to be treated as a kind of colony. How much self-rule it gets will depend on how it accepts its lot.
MAYS MP By Clare Hollinworth in Dacca
The British Parliamentary Delegation to East Bengal led by Mr. Arthur Bottomley, Labour MP for Middlesbrough East left Dacca for Calcutta yesterday in a frustrated and gloomy mood.
He had spent some hours in a vain attempt to visit Boliadi, a village 15 miles north of Dacca, which was destroyed at dawn on Sunday morning by the West Pakistan Army.
For reasons not yet explained six villages have recently been razed to the ground in this area, to the north of the small industrial town of Tongi, and firing can still be heard there.
Mr. Toby Jessel, Conservative MP for Thickening, commenting to the British Press, said: “The reign of terror which has been Imposed here is not conducive to the restoration of tho economic life of the country”.
Drawing on his experiences with the fact-finding mission during tho past four days Mr. Jessel said the disappearance •of local people and the sacking of village add to the great fear Bengalis already have of the Pakistani Army.
“Trigger-Happy”
“The generals must stop the trigger-happy and arbitrary actions of many units,” he said. “I could not put my hand on my heart and recommend anyone to return to Pakistan if they were Hindu or had any connection with Awami League”.
“Indeed I doubt whether it is safe for anyone to return to East Pakistan from India with the Army in its present mood.”
One step towards restoring confidence might be, said Mr. Jessel, the replacement of Lt.-Gen. Tikka Khan in the post of Military Governor by a soldier who knew something of how to win the hearts and minds of Bengalis.
Mr. Jessel claimed the Pakistani authorities were trying to “have it both ways” by their emphatic statements that the- Feni bridge between Dacca and Chittagong was destroyed by Indian officers coming from across the border.
At the same time they razed to the ground scores of villages near the bridge because they had harbored Bangladesh guerrillas.
Mr. Reginald Prentice, Labour MP for East Ham North,, though not so forthright, said he toured the Barisal area in the delta on Sunday last, and order was not yet restored, although he had heard an impressive weight of reports of repressive army action against nearby villages.
Mr. Bottomley told the local Press that “they had seen many terrible things,” The RAF Hercules aircraft, carrying the delegation from Dacca to Calcutta was yesterday forbid¬den to enter Indian air space. It took a quarter of an hour of radio exchanges between the crew and ground control in Calcutta before the aircraft was allowed to land.
Death And Hatred In Chittagong
BY Our Staff Correspondent in Chittagong
The army has restored order in Chittagong, the vital port of East Pakistan. After a series of atrocities committed by both Bengalis and Bihari Moslems, the martial law authorities, destroyed scores of villages by fire, artillery and bulldozers.
The sullen hatred, fear and mistrust between the West Pakistan authorities and the local Bengali population remains open and intense.
Indeed the army here admits over one third of the working population is still hiding in the countryside, there is little traffic in the streets and many shops are shut. Although the night curfew has been relaxed there is firing throughout the night.
A Colonel explained this by saying : “Our fire power is greater than theirs. When we discover any resistance we destroy the house and the surrounding area to demonstrate to the local population what will happen to them if they harbor Bangladesh guerrillas.”
The army hope that the vital bridge at Feni, 65 miles to the north-west will be repaired by 5th July, thus enabling distribution of goods from the clogged harbor to begin. Foreign experts are skeptical for there is a great deal of work still to be done on this rail crossing, which was skilfully destroyed, either by Bangladesh guerrillas or Indian Army sappers.
Although the martial law authorities claim there are now only 1,000 local inhabitants under detention, Bengali leaders in private claim that each night some 100 people are brought in by the army for questioning and only five or six allowed to return.
This was confirmed by foreign non British residents who added that the inhabitants were often “threatened” by the Army and made to open shops or attend offices because they were too afraid or cowed to disobey. But after threats or interrogation the Bengalis concerned took the first possible opportunity to cross the frontier into India.
Doubtless senior officers here in the Delta are having problems with their own troops, who went on the rampage immediately after they had occupied the towns and are still not always easy to control.
British residents, to a man, are strong supporters of President Yahya Khan, and anxious that financial aid should be resumed. They are full of praise for the manner in which the Army is maintaining order, but their views are not shared by other foreign residents, nervy the Bengalis.
Yahya Plans Constitution in 4 Months
By M.F.H. BEG from Karachi.
President Yahya Khan announced yesterday that he had set up a committee' to draft a • constitution so 'that Pakistan could return to civilian rule.
In a nation-wide broadcast the President said he hoped to transfer power to elected representatives in a matter of four months or so. “The precise timing will naturally depend on the internal and external situation at the time” he said.
Various leaders of the National Assembly would be consulted in preparing the draft constitution, which would be worked out after studying a number of existing constitutions. President Yahya said: “The constitution shall also provide-full social and economic justice to various sections of our society. The constitution must be a Federal one and it must have all the characteristics of a Federal Constitution.
There will not be fresh elections before the new constitution is introduced” he said.
President Yahya said he had banned the Awami League. The League won all but two of the seats in East Pakistan at the December elections.
EDITORIAL
East Pakistan’s Future
President Yahya Khan’s constitutional plans after the upheavals in East Pakistan are accompanied by grim reports of the situation in that crucified province. It is now several weeks since he held out the prospect of finding enough representative East Pakistanis to set up a provincial administration and co-operate somehow with West Pakistani politicians to form a civilian national Government. He must have been deplorably out of touch with v/hat was and had been, going on, and now sets more modest and distant goals.
That he rules out fresh elections goes without saying. It is the tragedy of this well-meaning man, and a sobering reflection for the ardent reformers, that the first genuinely free elections, courageously implemented by him resulted in bloodbath that followed. First the general breakdown of law and order. Then the mob murdering West Pakistanis. Then the civil war with Western troops proceeding with brutality, often with savagery, Against independence fighters and liberal politicians alike. And fourthly the massacre of East Bengali Hindus by East Pakistan Moslems, with the army tolerating,abetting or participating.
Official assurances, before the Press was allowed back into East Pakistan, That conditions were well on the way back to normal were rudely shattered last week by the first cable from In Chittagong is now shown to be rather worse. No wonder the Parliamentary delegation could not honestly encourage the six million refugees to return.
President Yahya, dropping the Constituent Assembly, has set up a committee to draft a constitution for a return to civilian rule in four months or so—but longer if the internal and external situation is not propitious. There seems little hope that either will be. He praises the Army for its suppression of the threatened secession, and while promising maximum provincial autonomy, makes it clear that central control will be much stronger than if the compromise rejected by Sheikh Mujib, the Eastern leader, who won the election and is now in prison. Evidently East Pakistan is to be treated as a kind of colony. How much self-rule it gets will depend on how it accepts its lot.
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