Four of them were still just alive rolling over and waving their legs and arms. But none of them made any noise.
At this moment our Awami League guide became hysterical and tried to rush us back. He said it was not safe, the West Pakistan is were attacking. He tugged us away from the bodies.
But suddenly Alan Hart, myself and Mohammad realized who these dead and dying men were. They were not Bengali, they were-we are convinced-the Punjabi prisoners we had seen bound and under guard an hour before.
The victims could not have been killed by anyone but local Bengali irregulars as these were the only people in central Jessore that day.
The terror and behavior of the Awami politician and the crowd is circumstantial evidence and our photographer, Amin, who knows his Pakistani types, is certain the victims were Punjabis.
Even as the locals began to threaten us and we were forced to drive away, we saw another 40 Punjabi spies' being marched towards that same grass plot with their hands above their hands.
Hindustan Standard, Calcutta, 4 April 1971:
Tushar Patranavis:
About 500 non-Bengali workers of the sugar factory at Darshana were now in a concentration camp.
Statesman, New Delhi, 4 April 1971:
Peter Hazlehurst:
The millions of non-Bengali Muslims now trapped in the Eastern Wing have always felt the repercussions of the East-West tensions, and it is now feared that the Bengalis have turned on this vast minority community to take their revenge.
The Times, London, 6 April 1971:
Thousands of helpless Muslim refugees who settled in Bengal at the time of partition are reported to have been massacred by angry Bengalis in East Pakistan during the past week.
The facts about the massacres were confirmed by Bihari Muslim refugees who crossed the border into India this week and by a young British technician who crossed the Indo-Pakistan frontier at Hili today.
The technician, who does not want to be identified because he has to return to Bengal, was trapped in the northern region of Bengal after the civil war erupted.
He said that hundreds of non-Bengali Muslims must have died in the northwestern town of Dinajpur alone.
