On Saturday when they spoke it was lo shout “Pakistan Zindabad"-"Long five Pakistan."
Most people took the hint. Before the curfew was reimposed the national flag of Pakistan, apart from patrol, was the hottest selling item on the market.
As if to protect their property in their absence, the last thing a family would do before they locked up their house would be to raise the flag.
At four o'clock the streets emptied again, the troops reappeared and silence fell once more over Dacca.
But firing broke out again almost immediately. “Anybody out to doors after from will be shot,” the radio had announced.
A small boy running across the street outside the intercontinental two minutes after curfew was stopped, slapped four times in the face by an officer and taken away in a jeep.
Another unfortunate night-watchman this time at the Dacca Club, a leftover bar from the colonial days, was shot when he went to shut the gate of the club.
A group of Hindi Pakistanis living around a temple in the middle of the racecourse were all killed, apparently for no reason at all except they were out in the Open.
And refugees who came back into the city when they found roads leading out were blocked by the Army told how many had been killed as they tried to walk across country to avoid the troops.
Beyond those roadblocks is more or less a no man's land, where the clearing operations are still going on. What is happening out there is anybody's guess-except the Army's.
Many people took to the river to try to escape the crowds on the roads. But they run risk of being left stranded waiting for a boat when curfew fell. Where one such group was sitting on Saturday afternoon, there were only bloodstains next morning.
"Traitors" Charge
Hardly anywhere was there evidence of organized resistance to the troops in Dacca or anywhere else in the province. Even the West Pakistani officers scoffed at the idea of anybody putting up a fight.
These men,” said one Punjabi lieutenant “could not kill us if they tried."
"Things are much better now,” said another officer.
"Nobody can speak out or come out. If they do we will kill them. They have spoken enough. They are traitors and we are not. We are fighting in the name of God and a united Pakistan."
