380 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড "Tell me. why were you running?" By this time Bari, wild-eyed an trembling violently, could not answer. He buckled at the knees. "He looks like a fauji, sir," volunteered one Jawan as Bari was hauled to his feet. (Fauji is the Urdu word for soldiers, the army uses it for the Bengali rebels it is hounding.) "Could be," I heard Rathore mutter grimly. Abdul Bari was clouted several times with the butt end of a rifle, then ominously pushed against a wall. Mercifully his screams brought a young head peeping from the shadows of a nearby hut. Bari shouted something in Bengali. The head vanished. Moments later a bearded old man came haltingly from the hut. Rathore pounced on him. "Do you know this man?" "Yes, Sahib. He is Abdul Bari." "Is he a fauji?". "No, Sahib, he is a tailor from Dacca." "Tell me the truth." "Khuda Kassain (God's oath), Sahib, he is a tailor." There was a sudden silence. Rrthore looked abashed as I told him "Eor God's sake let him go. What more proof do you want of his innocence?" But the jawans were apparently unconvinced and kept milling around Bari. It was only after I had once more interceded on his behalf that Rathore ordered Bari to be released. By that time he was a crumpled, speechless heap of terror. But his life had been saved. Others have not been as fortunate. For six days as I travelled with the officers of the 9th Division headquarters at Comilla I witnessed at close quarters the extent of the killing. I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot offhand after a cursory "short-arm inspection" showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla. 1 have seen truckloads of other human targets and those who had the humanity to try to help them hauled off "for disposal" under the cover of darkness and curfew. I have witnessed the brutality of "kill and burn missions" as the army units, after clearing out the rebels, pursued the pogrom in the towns and the villages. I have seen whole villages devastated by "punitive action." And in the officers, mess at night I have listened incredulously as otherwise brave and honorable men proudly chewed over the day's kill.
