629 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড massive Army retaliation. In short, the general atmosphere remains every tense and incompatible with the resumption of normal activities in the Province as a whole. B. Results 6. The first thing that strikes one-whether in Dacca or travelling in the countryside-is that there seems to be very few people about. The situation varies greatly from Dacca, where our collective impression is that no more than 50 per cent of the usual population is in evidence during the day; to Chittagong, where only a third of the population appears, and these feel it necessary to indicate their "loyalty" by displaying Pakistani flags on their vehicles or their persons; to Kushtia, where no more than 10 per cent of the normal population remains; to Bhola, where virtually the total population seems to be in place. One ominous development is that the population is reliably reported to have doubled in areas of Patuakhali and other parts of the coastal region where the food situation is already critical and there is serious doubt that even the normal population can be supplied with adequate food grains over the coming months. 7. This is the impression one gains by day. After dark the situation is more unusual still. Most areas have curfews. In Sylhet it is 7:30 P.M. to 5:00 A.M.; in Chittagong 10:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.; in Dacca curfew abolished on the 11th of June. Whatever the curfew hours, the streets begin to clear in mid-afternoon and are completely deserted by dark. 8. What this situation means for East Pakistan's subsistence economy where normally the scores of thousands of small pockets (extended family, village, union, etc.) of more-or-less self-sufficient mini-economies are loosely linked together over extremely difficult terrain by a costly transport and commercial network-is that the links have been completely broken and the economy not only stopped temporarily but fundamentally dislocated. For almost three months there was virtually no movement of jute, tea or other exports from farm to factory or port, and very little from port abroad; severely limited movement of food grains into the country and to the Dacca area, and practically none within the province-either from central storage deports or between surplus and deficit areas. In general, intra-provincial, inter-wing and international trade ceased for a period and have so far barely begun to function again. The mini-economies have in general gone on at a reduced level however, the setbacks to agriculture-to rice production in particular-as well as the virtual cessation of food movements for three months, mean that additional food import and distribution requirements must be imposed upon a crippled transport, commercial and administrative system that was not all that sturdy in normal times. At the same time, demands may be placed upon the system to try to move larger than normal quantities of jute, tea, etc., in an attempt to make up for the past few months. 9. Though the last large pockets of "organized resistance" were eliminated by early May, and the population centers of the Province have been under firm Martial Law Administration since then, the disruption of communications has persisted. Telecommunications and mail services have been partially restored to most areas, but people aren't travelling-except within urban areas—and goods are not moving even there. Our estimates for Dacca are that perhaps half the rickshaws and one-third of the ឍ -
