UN CHIEF REFUSES RELIEF REQUEST

April 1, 1971

The UN Secretary General U Thant declined to request the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to send relief to the victims of Pakistan military massacre in Bangladesh. He asked India to directly approach the ICRC. There were precedents where U Thant, at the instance of the USA, had requested the ICRC to provide support during the Vietnam War.

CALCULATED ATTACK ON HINDUS

USAID officers in Dhaka called on the chief secretary of the occupied Bangladesh, a Bangalee, on April 1, 1971. Archer K Blood, then American Consul General in Dhaka, provides the following details of the meeting: The secretary told the USAID officers, "the Hindu community in East Pakistan had always conspired against Pakistan and had spoken and acted in such a way as to heighten distrust and hatred of West Pakistan by Bangalees. Hindus were responsible for Awami League intransigence." When the USAID officers demurred pointing out that the Awami League had the overwhelming support of the Muslim majority of East Pakistan, the chief secretary said, "Yes, but although the Hindus are not in the foreground, they are always in the background, conspiring and making the situation worse." After first denying that the Hindus were being singled out for army atrocities, he admitted that the army crackdown was a calculated plan. [Archer K. Blood, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh, UPL, 2006, pg. 217]

GUERILLA TACTICS

A New York Times report dated April 1, 1971 wrote the following about the guerilla tactics adopted by Bangladeshi resistance fighters against the Pakistan army: Workers dig tunnels under main roads at night so they will collapse when soldiers in trucks move down them. Children in trees and women hidden along roadways serve as lookouts and spies. Girls whittle pointed sticks for pits where soldiers might walk. Young men practice ambushes, in many cases with clubs, stones, and bows and arrows.

One resistance fighter was quoted in the report as saying: "What we are doing against the army of occupation has possibly not been done anywhere in the world. We are fighting in human waves with almost no weapons and replying to the rockets with only rifles and revolvers."

The resistance fighters appeared to be favouring the idea of forcing the Pakistan army out quickly. They were also confident that they could win over a longer period, using guerrilla tactics, with the help of an underground arms supply, the report added.

Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at sajen1986@gmail.com