Around three dozens of foreign journalists were put on a plane to Karachi under threat to shoot by Pakistani occupation forces on that day in 1971.
That was the result of publishing reports in different international media against the Pakistani atrocities.
New York Times said 5,000-7,000 people were killed in Dhaka in the night of March 25 and 26 while The Sydney Morning Herald put the figure 10,000 – 100,000.
Rain exposed two mass graves, one at Zahrul Huq Hall and the other at Rokeya Hall.
"Soldiers of the Pakistani Army threatened to shoot the newsmen if they left the Intercontinental Hotel in North Dacca, from which they could see troops firing on unarmed civilians, who supported the East Pakistani rebels (freedom fighters)," according to a report titled "Army Expels 35 Foreign Newsmen From Pakistan."
The report of Grace Licrtenstein was published in The New York Times on March 28, 1971.
"Before they (foreign journalists) were put on a plane to Karachi, the newsmen, including The New York Times correspondent Sydney H. Schanberg, were searched and their notes, films and files were confiscated," the report said.
While in Dacca, the newsmen were prevented from filing any dispatches or contacting diplomatic missions. Correspondents for the Associated Press and Reuters apparently were not at the hotel when the other newsmen were rounded up. Offices of the two news services in New York said that they had not heard from their men in Dacca, it also said.
Following the reports published in different international media against the Pakistani atrocities, then Pakistani government expelled 35 foreign newsmen from The New York Times, The Washington Star, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun and other media in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Japan and the Soviet Union on March 27, 1971.
Schanberg (Pulitzer Prize winner) reported that when the lieutenant colonel in charge of the area around the hotel was asked why the foreign press had to leave, he replied: "We don't have to explain. This is our country."
Then as he turned away, smiling contemptuously, he added: "We want you to leave because it would be too dangerous for you. It will be too bloody."
A.M. Rosenthal, managing editor of The Times, protested the treatment of Schanberg and the others in a telegram to the Pakistani Government.
The telegram said: "Stunned by unwarranted and unprecedented expulsion of the New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg and more than 30 other foreign correspondents from Dacca. Contrary to all principles of international press freedom, Schanberg and others were confined to Intercontinental Hotel in Dacca under threat that they would be shot if they left the building in performance of their journalistic duties.
"They were subsequently expelled from the country after confiscation of their papers and films."
Meanwhile US department of State secret memo predicts Indian future response to situation:
a. Tolerate privately provided cross-border assistance to the East Bengalis ; This assistance could range from propaganda support to weapons and explosives.
b. Permit East Bengal dissidents to use India as a refuge and to conduct crossborder activities from within India.
c. Covertly provide supplies, including weapons, and perhaps some training, to East Bengal dissidents.
-(From telephone conversation between President Nixon and Kissinger.)
Archer Blood sends another telegram:
American priests in old Dacca reports that army acted with no provocations on part of Bengalis except barricade erection. Army exclusively responsible for all fires. Technique was to set houses afire and then gun down people as they left their homes. Stated army looking for Awami Leaguers but more indiscriminate rather than selective in approach. Most army destructions on 25th and 26th night, lesser on March 27th and March 28th.
We have received reliable reports of troops engaged in looting homes. Military reportedly is standing by while non-Bengalis looting Bengali dwellings.
Police were simply executed in Mohammadpur and elsewhere as Army considered them as potential threat. 800 Police killed in surprise attacks. The East Pakistan Rifles camp in Peelkhana had 1000 EPRs present. 700 Killed, 200 overpowered and 100 escaped.
House to house searches underway with ex Bengali servicemen being special target and shot at site whenever found. “No police seen anywhere in Dhaka”.
“26 hour chronicle of Dacca drama” -A diary through the eyes of Robert Kaylor of UPI of what happened in Dacca when the Pakistani Army took control.
QH
