বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড they killed my son. Tie was coming home from the seed store when the Punjabis came up to him and shot him dead. I don't know why. He had never done anything wrong in his life." Another refugee showed me his two sons, aged 6 and 7, both of whom were still bruised from beatings that Punjabi soldiers had given them. Some refugees said the Punjabis had begun to kidnap children and hold them for ransom. And Methodist missionary John Hastings added, "I talked to a man who raised all the money he could to ransom his child, but was 200 rupees about S26 short. So he said, "Beat me for the rest. And they beat him, gouged out one of his eyes and then gave him his child." Disease. Even when they escape to India, the refugees are threatened by many perils, most notably cholera. When the first crowds, crossed the border, doctors inoculated them against cholera, but now the Bengalis are swarming into India in such numbers that they cannot all be immunixed. "It takes so long to use syringes," said one doctor" "and we don't have money for inoculation guns." Already the nut break of cholera is nearing epidemic proportions. Last week, some 2,000 refugees died, and an equal number are said to be near death in hospital or by the roadsides. The outlook for the future is even darker, for the monsoon floods are all but certain to spread this waterborne disease. For all their suffering, the refugees are not alone in facing hardship. As a result of the enormous influx of Pakistanis, the price of vegetables and edible oils in West Bengal has soared. Concurrently, local residents are finding their wages undercut by refugees willing to work for less. "The refugees are getting free food from the government so they can afford to work for less money than a man who has to buy food," Nuskar explained. "The rate for a day's work for an agricultural laborer has been cut in half." Inevitably, such a situation plants the seeds of anger. "The people here are sympathetic to the refugees, Nuskar said, "but their sympathy is beginning to dry up. In two months, there will be nothing but resentment against the Pakistanis." The refugee problem is also severely straining the already sickly Indian budget. The government has put the cost of caring for the next three months at a bare minimum of $30 million, and it could go much higher. To date, the financial aid that India has received from other countries has been relatively trivial. Although the United States plans to add $14 million it has already pledged to the refugee cause, other nations have remained largely indifferent. "It is going to take an enormous amount of international aid to stop a major disaster," warned Hastings, "yet no one seems to be stirring. West Germany has given $140,000 and you feel like saying, "Thanks very much. You've just bought enough food to keep us going another half a day." Col P.N. Luthra, who is in charge of the refugee program, was equally downcast: "We have been managing, but things are getting far worse. We plan ten days ahead and find after three days that we have to start again because the number of refugees has suddenly doubled. We are doing our level best, we cannot do it on our
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