Sinduri, East Pakistan.
June 30
Smoke is still rising from the blackened ruins. The stench of burning hangs in the rain-sodden air above the heaps of buckled corrugated iron, charred wood and rubble that had once been homes. Here and there men and women pick about among the debris in the hopes of salvaging some item of their belongings.

Such is “normalcy” in the village of Sinduri under the rule of President Yahya Khan’s army. It is one of eight such places burned down or looted in the past five days in an area some 40 miles to the north-west of Dacca—apparently for no other reason than that their inhabitants are predominantly Hindu.

Sinduri lies amid water-logged jute fields and is connected to the main road from Dacca only by a narrow causeway impassable to ordinary vehicles at this time of year.

The Army, guided by a Muslim informer from Dacca named Matlab Mian arrived by both boat and road in the early hours of last Sunday. A night watchman posted by the villagers was able to raise the alarm in time for most of Sinduri's 700 or so inhabitants to flee.

Not all were lucky. Radhahinodi Karmakar, a goldsmith, seven other men and one old woman were shot down. Four girls were raped.

The soldiers then systematically destroyed almost every dwelling and hut One of the main targets was the house of Meghlal Sarkar, a prosperous Hindu jute merchant alleged by the Army to have given money to the Mukti Fauj, the Bengali resistance fighters. The villagers were told that unless the merchant was turned over within eight days the Army would return and “kill every Hindu we can find”.

Now, three days later, the boldest of the villagers are returning fearfully to what remains of their homes.

Young girls drew their saris closer about them and scurried away as we approached. All were obviously terrified of the Army’s return.

Boliadi, a village of more than 1,000 people close by, was also visited by the Army last Sunday morning.

Four people were killed, 14 girls raped and left unconscious, and money, gold and ornaments stolen.

Four other villages of similar size in the same region — Chapair, Radhanagar, Attabaha and Tekerbari — were also burnt down by the Army between June 24 and 27. Two more, Bhringraj and Sewratoli, were looted but not destroyed. Four people were killed in these operations.

It was not possible for me to visit all these places. The information about what happened to them comes from reliable local informants whose identity, for obvious reasons, cannot be revealed. . Wherever possible I checked what I was told by the on-the-spot investigation and found it to be accurate.

The fate of Sinduri and the other villages is incontrovertible proof of a continuing, calculated persecution of the Hindu community in East Pakistan by the armed forces. There is absolutely no evidence that any of the villages offered provocation of any kind to the Army. No conceivable strategic or security reasons can be found to justify what it did.


Dacca, June 30.—Mr Sidney Schanberg, South Asia correspondent of The New York Times, left here by air today after being expelled by the Pakistan Government.—Reuter.

India appeal for tenting, page 6