108 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড किल्लाञाम সূত্র তারিখ ৫১। বাঙালী শরনার্থী ; দুঃখের শেষ নেই प्लेश्भ ২১ জুন, ১৯৭১ TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 21, 1971 THE BENGALL REFUGEES: A SURFEIT OF WOE A cyclone that killed as many as 500,000 people. A civil war that claimed perhaps 200,000 more. An exodus that already totals 5,000,0KX) and is still growing. A cholera epidemic that has barely begun, yet has taken already some 5,000 lives. It is an almost biblical catalogue of woe, rivaling if not surpassing the plagues that visited upon the Egyptians of Mosaic days. As yet it is virtually certain that the list will grow even longer for the bedeviled people of East Pakistan. Last week, as fresh waves of refugees poured across the Indian border at the rate of 100,000 a day, they brought tales of a pogrom against Hindus by the predominantly Moslem Pakistan. And over the stinking, teeming refugee camps that scar the border areas of five Indian states hovered the growing threat of famine and pestilence. The first onrush of refugees followed the outburst of civil war in March, when West Pakistan decided to crush East Pakistanis drive for Bangladesh (an independent Bengali State), Immediately after fighting broke out between the fierce Pathans and Punjabis of the Pakistani army and the Bengali liberation forces, 1,500,000 terrified East Pakistanis- Moslems and Hindus alike-crossed into the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Bihar. Now the escapees are mostly Hindus, and they bring tales of torture, rape and massacre. According to the new arrivals, the Pakistani Government is blaming the 10 million Hindus of East Pakistan (pop. 78 million) for being the principal supporters of the now outlawed Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Hindus did in fact, overwhelmingly support "Mujib", who at last word was under house arrest in Karachi, the principal city of West Pakistan. But so did the Moslems, for the Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats at stake in East Pakistan during last December elections. But the Hindus, because they are minority, are an easier target. Battered To Death A Hindu building contractor told of how Pakistani troops at a tea estate asked people whom they voted for in the election. They shot 200 who admitted voting for the Awami League. In a hospital in Agartala, Indian doctors reported that number of the refugees came in badly burnt. The doctors explained that the refugees were shoved into huts by Pak. Army men, who then set the huts on fire. The hospital has also treated 370 men, women and children for bullet wounds 17 of whom died. In the refugee camp at Petrapole on the West Bengal-East Pakistan border a 16 year old girl recalled how she and her parents were in bed, "when we heard the tread of feet outside. The door burst open and several soldiers entered. They pointed their bayonets at the throe of us and before my eyes killed my mother and father-battering to death with the butts of their rifles. They flung me on the floor and the three of them raped me.
