39 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ ১৭৭দেশত্যাগীদের মতে ভয়ঙ্কর যুদ্ধ নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস ৭ এপ্রিল, ১৯৭১ চলছে NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 7, 1971 FOREIGN EVACUEES FROM EAST PAKISTAN TELL OF GRIM FIGHT By Sydney H. Schanberg More than 100 foreign evacuees arrived here today after a 34-hour voyage from Chittagong, East Pakistan's major port bringing the latest eyewitness reports about the Pakistani army's attempt to suppress the independence movement. "It's a massacre," said John Martinussen, a Danish student. "We saw the army shooting civilians," said Neil O'Toole, an American from New Rochelle, N.Y. "I don't want to say too much because I'm afraid of reprisals against our organization." He asked that the name of his organization not be mentioned. The 119 foreigners, who arrived at the Calcutta docks this afternoon aboard a British cargo vessel that had been sitting in Chittagong harbor unable to unload because of the fighting, were of 17 nationalities. The two largest groups were 37 Americans and 33 Britons. As they came down the gangplank of the vessel, the Clan Mac-Nair, they were met by diplomatic officials and a crowd of Indian and foreign newsmen. Though some of the evacuees were reluctant to talk, others painted a grim picture of Chittagong, East Pakistan's second-largest city. Until now little has been known of how that city of 400,000 inhabitants has fared in the fighting. The foreigners said that after several days of fighting, the army-all West Pakistani troops—had pushed the East Pakistani resistance forces out of the city. But they added, the army's control ends five miles outside the city at the banks of the Karnalphuli River. Everything from the river south, they said, is in the hands of the "liberation army which consists of civilians and members of the East Pakistani police, the East Pakistani Rifles and the East Bengal Regiment who have come over to the independence movement. The foreigners said that they could hear shooting on the outskirts of the city even as they were leaving for Calcutta yesterday morning. Most of the residents have fled the city and gone into the countryside, they said.
