পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪০৩

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371 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড A few lucky children get a half cup of milk from church distribution points. There are no more canvas awnings and many shelters consist of flimsy grass mats thrown across rough bamboo frames but most of the people are living in the open. Those who have found shelter on the stairs and verandahs of Government buildings, and in forgotten ruins, arc jealous guardians of their precious few feet of sleeping space. As men and woman join the food queues, the children arc left as the stake to the family's quarters, Among the hundreds of thousands of Bengalis searching for shelter is Kati Chandra Dey, aged 25, a Hindu laborer from Jessore. We found him clutching his youngest child, surrounded by his family of nine on the outskirts of Bongaon. He said that they had spent three days tramping between one camp and another looking for shelter-but there is nothing. Why did he leave East Pakistan? "When the Army came we knew they would kill the Hindus. They burnt down my house with petrol but we got away." From the stories of other refugees who have fled into West Bengal it is evident that the Army has sought out Hindus and Bengali Muslims as their main victims. It is equally evident that most of the killings came in the form of reprisals for communal riots last month, when Bengalis systematically massacred the non-Bengali .Muslim immigrants (Biharis) in East Pakistan. "There are no Bihari refugees," a Bengali social worker told me confidently. "Fourteen of them tried to come into West Bengal two days ago, and the Bengalis beat them to death with spars and stones. The Army has been equally ruthless and most of the refugees have fled after reports of mass murders and killings. Hasan Ali is a 25-year-old Muslim peasant of Bengali stock from the district of Jessore. He was in the small CASA field hospital, which has been set up in the old Salvation Army headquarters on the outskirts of Bongaon. He says that the West Pakistan soldiers refused to believe that he was a Muslim and shot him down in his paddy field. He pointed to the gaping hole in the front of his neck and the wound at the back of his shoulder, and explained that miraculously the bullet had passed through his neck without killing him. "I was working in my field when Pakistan Army troops came up from behind us. There were about 70 troops and they surrounded three of us. They wanted to know whether we were Hindus or Muslims. "They refused to believe that we were Muslims. They told us to put our hands up and we began to beg them to spare our lives. Then they started to shoot and I fainted." Binod Behary Shah, a Hindu laborer aged 70, also from Jessore, had a similar story to tell. He held up fingers torn by a bullet as, with palms folded on his chest, he begged West Pakistan soldiers to spare his life. "I was sleeping when two soldiers ordered me out of my house, which is about 20 yards from the main road. At first they wanted to know whether I was a Bengali or a non-Bengali. Then they wanted to know whether I was a Hindu or a Muslim.