68 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ৩০। কুষ্টিয়ার যুদ্ধ টাইম ১৯ এপ্রিল, ১৯৭১ TIME MAGAZINE, APRIL 19, 1971 THE BATTLE OF KUSHTIA Fierce fighting raged last week in East Pakistan as Bengali townspeople and peasants resisted the "occupation army" of 80,000 West Pakistani soldiers. Reports have indicated that as many as 200,000 civilians have been killed by the heavily armed West Pakistani troopers. But soldiers have also suffered severe casualties at the hands of irate peasants. This army controlled the capital of Dacca, the vital ports of Chittagong and Khulna, and several other towns. But a ragtag resistance movement called the Bangladesh Mukti Fouj (Bengal State Liberation Forces) was reportedly already in control of at least one-third of East Pakistan, including many cities and towns. West Pakistan authorities have almost completely succeeded in obscuring the actual detail& of the fighting from the outside world by expelling all foreign newsmen from East Pakistan. But last week Time Correspondent Dan Coggins managed to cross the border from India into East Pakistan, where he visited the embattled town of Kushtia (pop. 35,000). After extensive interviews with townspeople and captured West Pakistani troopers, Coggins was able to reconstruct an account of brutality and bravery that took place in Kushtia during the first fortnight of the civil war. His Report Kushtia, a quiet town in the rice-growing district near the broad Ganges, fell into a restless glee p on the night of March 25. Without warning, 13 jeeps and trucks came to a halt outside Kushtia's police station. It was 10:30 on the night the war broke out. Delta Company of the 27th Baluch Regiment had arrived from its base at Jessore cantonment 60 miles to the south. The 147 men of the company quickly disarmed some 500 Bengali policemen without meeting any resistance and then occupied four additional key points: the district police head quarters, the government office building, the VHF radio transmitter and the Zilla school for boys. Most of the sleeping townspeople did not realize what had happened until 5:30 a.m., when jeeploads of soldiers with bullhorns drove through the empty streets announcing that a total curfew was to begin 30 minutes later. Kushtia remained calm for 48 hours while the curfew was in effect, although seven persons-mostly peasants who arrived in town unaware of what had happenedwere shot to, death for being found in the streets. The curfew was lifted on the morning of March 28. and the townspeople began to organize a resistance immediately. That night 53 East Pakistani policemen easily overpowered a handful of soldiers at the police station. Then, fanning out to nearby villages with all the 303 Enfield rifles and ammunition they could carry, the policemen joined forces with 100 college students who were already 'working for Bangladesh. The students were teaching the rudiments of guerrilla warfare to local peasants, who were armed only with hatchets, farm tools and bamboo staves. Within two days, the police and students had organized several thousand volunteers and militiamen of the East Pakistan Rifles and laid plans for simultaneous attacks on the five army positions in Kushtia.
