in the fire too. and 200 yards of shanty houses running alongside a railway line were destroyed.
Army patrols also razed nearby market area. Two days later, when it was possible to get out and see all this, some of the market's stall-owners were still lying as though asleep, their blankets pulled up over their shoulders. In the same district, the Dacca Medical College received direct bazooka fire and a mosque was badly damaged.
As the university came under attack other columns of troops moved in on the Rajarbag headquarters of the East Pakistan Police, on the other side of the city. Tanks opened fire first, witness said: then the troops moved in and leveled the men's sleeping quarters, firing incendiary rounds into the buildings. People living opposite did not know how many died there, but out of the 1,100 police based there not many are believed to have escaped.
Mujib's arrest
As this was going on. other units had surrounded the Sheikh's house. When contacted shortly before 1 a.m. he said that he was expected an attack any minute and had sent everyone except his servants and bodyguard away to safety.
A neighbor said that at 1-10 a.m., one tank, an armored car, and trucks loaded with troops drove down the street firing over the house. “Sheikh you should come down", an officer called out in English as they stopped outside. Mujibur stepped out onto his balcony and said. “Yes. I am ready, but there is no need to fire. All you need to have done is call me on the telephone and I would have come”.
The officer then walked into the yard and told Mujibur: “You are arrested”.
He was taken away along with three servants, an aide and his bodyguard, who was badly beaten up when he started to insult the officer. One man was killed- a night watchman hiding behind the fence of the house next door.
As the Sheikh was driven off- presumably to army headquarters- the soldiers moved into the house, took away all documents, smashed everything in sight locked the garden gate, shot down the green, red and yellow “Bangladesh” flag and drove away.
By 2 O'clock Friday
Fires were burning all over the city, and troops had occupied the university and surrounding areas. There was still heavy shelling in some areas, but the fighting was beginning to slacken noticeably. Opposite the Intercontinental Hotel Platoon of troops stored the empty office of “The People” newspaper, burning it down along with most houses in the area and killing the night watchman.
City lies silent
Shortly before dawn most firing had stopped, and as the sun came up an eerie silence settled over the city, deserted and completely dead except for noise of the crows and the occasional convoy of troops or two or three tanks rumbling by mopping up.
