361 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড Strolling through the crowded bazars of Dacca, with our guides constantly trying to stop curious crowds from gathering round us and attracting the attention of Army patrols. Radio Pakistan's claims of business as usual' seemed reasonable enough. We came across some gutted buildings, but by European standards of devastation the damage was trifling. Only when we reached the newer, central part of the city did we see the machinegun posts at every crossroads and rows of empty houses in the Hindu districts, where Some of the worst killing is said to have taken place in the sacred name of Islam. But even the areas where the heaviest fighting took place have been tidied up with astonishing speed. Only fresh horrors-like the layers of rotting bodies discovered by the staff of the Intercontinental Hotel in the city tip along the Narayanganj roadgive some idea of the true picture. There is a shortage of almost everything, from kerosene to food. Prices of some goods have almost doubled. The city's Holy Family Hospital, run by American missionaries, closed down a week ago when its stocks ran out. The tanks have left the city for the moment. Apparently they went through it so many times that their tracks wore out and they had to be carried off on transporters. The curfew has been relaxed until 9 p.m. but most citizens consider it unsafe to walk the streets after dark because West Pakistani soldiers have taken to robbing people of their watches and wallets at gunpoint. During the day, troops patrol the streets in jeeps and trucks. There are also some armed Bihari volunteers rushing about in commandeered vehicles. If the West Pakistanis are ever forced out of Bangladesh, then, in the name of humanity, they should take the Biharis with them; otherwise the Bengalis will surely massacre them. These Urdu-speaking Muslims from the Indian State of Bihar came to East Pakistan as refugees in 1947, to escape Hindu persecution during the Partition troubles. The Biharis, mostly traders, soon took over vacant shops left by Hindus who had run the other way. Now the Biharis have repaid Bengalis, hospitality by acting as scouts and guides for the West Pakistanis, who are also Urdu-speaking and with whom they feel a greater solidarity. There are Army checkpoints everywhere in Dacca, though, luckily, in most cases only the officers can understand English. A soldier slopped me outside the Dacca Improvement Trust offices and demanded identity papers. He accepted my passport as good enough though it had no entry stamp for East Pakistan. It was a long moment. A 19 year old student told me he was stopped on his bicycle by an aggressive young Baluchi, about his own age, who demanded to know why he wasn't flying the Pakistan flag from his handlebars. The soldier eventually let him go when he declared his willingness to have Pakistan written in capital letters in blood on his shirt. I told the Baluchi I didn’t have a knife myself and offered him my arm for his bayonet. He let me go.'
