পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৫৭

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425 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ১৭০। অবরুদ্ধ ঢাকা টাইমস ৭ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১ THE TIMES, TUESDA Y, DECEMBER 7, 1971 DACCA EATS BY CANDLELIGHT AFTER DAY OF STRAFING A Dog howls, children watch A spectacular air show from rooftops. Life goes on in an embattled capital From James P. Sterba Dacca, December A (delayed) The city is in darkness at 8.30 pm. Nothing moves. A 5.30 pm curfew sent people from the streets. Curtains are pulled, candles burn shaded from windows. There are few sounds. A dog howls now and then, a Jeep or lorry slips by, lights out. The clouds have dimmed the moonlight, the stars are faint. The crows, after a day of soaring overhead among Indian and Pakistan warplanes, have ceased their noisy vigil. The capital of East Pakistan is listening and waiting. At 8.32 pm Dacca hears three booms in the distance. A siren wails. No sounds of jets. Another deeper-tone siren. Now at 8.37 pm. the whoosh of a jet can be heard. It is high and far away. There is more than one, none firing so far. Families of United Nations workers, contractors, relief-agency peopleAmericans. Britons, Australians and others-have crammed into the Intercontinental Hotel with hastily packed suitcases, waiting to be evacuated. They have been told a United Nations aircraft, an American C-130 Hercules, is coming from Bangkok to take them out. Children are confused; some whine The hotel's hall lights are on but room and ground-floor lights have been blacked out and the windows taped. The Scottish chef has prepared another buffet for dinner chicken and lamb curries, rice, cucumbers fish, cold plates; no beer or Coke left. The waiter said the hoarding began this afternoon. Diners eat by candlelight, talking of rumours and whether things will get worse or better Most seem to think worse. About 50 journalists are in the hotel punching their typewriters by candlelight and collecting scraps of information. Photographers and film crews and writers are worried about getting their films and articles out. There is constant tuning of radios in search of outside news. The hotel filled in the afternoon. Besides evacuees Pakistan International Airlines workers from the airport piled in, three and four to a room. Nine of their co-workers were killed in the Indian raids on the airport today. They said the raids started last night at about 3am and ended by mid afternoon. "Of course, they have got to break for tea", someone said. Now it's 9.14 pm and there is another dull boom far away, another siren.