ՖԳb বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র : অষ্টম খন্ড met during these days either told us that he had left already and came back to look after the house by day or that he was contemplating to leave in a day or two. As the night crept in and with it the curfew the whole atmosphere became one of gloom and despair. While the pendulum of our heart swung between life and death and we were thinking seriously of crossing over to the other side of the Buriganga our milkman, who hailed from jinjira dissuaded us from doing so. He told us that people who had moved out already were in great troubles. The exodus made life in the area difficult. According to an estimate the population in Jinjira had swollen to about one hundred thousand. Then suddenly came the catastrophe on the night following 1st April, similar to the one that occurred on the night following 25th March. On both occasions the da preceding was a Thursday. On both occasions the morning hours of Friday witnessed the greates massacre. We were awakened from our sleep at 5 A.M. on Friday the 2nd April by an equally severe and deafening sounds. It was still dark and time for Morning Prayer. Were Thursday nights and Friday mornings favourite operational hours for the army of the so-called Islamic State? Was the morning Azan on each Friday to be replaced by the furious sound of guns? These were the questions we asked ourselves. At once we went up to the roof and heard roaring sounds still raging while the smoke enveloped the entire southwest of the city. The roof of Mitford Hospital was made the base of operation and guns were fitted there. It was reported tâhat thousands of lives were cut short in Jinjira in this big military swoop. Those who sought safety from the city during the last six or seven days fell easy victims to this unprecedentede barbarity of the army. There were a few lucky souls, however, who miraculously escaped even from this massacre. We heard pathetic stories of several brothers returning from the mosque after Morning Prayer when they were lined up by the army men. Every time one brother was aimed at by the gun he looked to the eldest brother for guidance. The eldest brother advised him to rememder his Lord till at last when his own chance came the man in charge of the operation ran short of bullets and the victim escaped after slight injury. We heard stories of people hiding in pools of night-soil, or pounds covered by water-hyacinth, stories of mother separated from children, of brother separated from brother, and of wife separated from husband and yet eluding detection by the brutes. The army plundered the Jinjira Bazar, robbed many people of their wealth and destroyed crores of rupees worth of food-grains stocked in the area. The whole operation was directed against fugitives from Dacca, amongst whom, they alleged, were two leaders of the Mukti-Bahini, whom they searched relentlessly. For quite sometime after the incident the story got currency that the army people asked every villager about these two leaders saying, "Khasra, Monta Kidar hai"? (Where are Khosru and Montu'2), and that in their utter disappointment in not finding them there they indulged in wanton ravatges. Our hearts palpitated in silent agony. As the sun rose the whole JInjira looked dark and sombre. The Jinjira Massacre And After Experiences of an Exile At Home Mafijullah Kabir December, 1972
