BOYRA, INDIA.-Dalal Khan escaped from East Pakistan with a worn white cloth which he wraps around his head for shelter from the sun when he is not using it to carry his ration of rice from the kitchen of this refugee camp. He was unable to bring anything else.

A short, pockmarked man who is not sure of his age, Khan ran out the back door of his little grocery store in Jessore minutes before Pakistan army soldiers came in the front.

Those who didn't run fast enough, including Khan's 17 year-old son-in-law, were shot down, Khan said, and he saw 600 dead bodies as he fled into the countryside.

About 40,000 refugees reportedly have come to the tent camps set up around this border town. They are perhaps a tenth of the East Pakistanis who have fled to India to escape army brutality, but no one is certain of the total.

No International aid is reaching the refugees. No one knows how long they will stay or how many more will come. The refugee influx poses a massive problem for this impoverished area of India. But initial largely private efforts to help have kept most refugees fed and sheltered in long canvas tents.

Almost all the refugees here come from around Jessore where there was some of the heaviest fighting in the western sector. But all those interviewed today made clear that their families had been massacred even though they had not taken an active part in the Bengali resistance.

One young man broke into sobs as he described ,the death of all his family. They were sleeping, he said, when the soldiers kicked in the door and opened fire. One brother had been close to graduating from the university, the man said, leaning against a car and wailing They had all pinned hopes Of advancement on this youth who would have been the first college graduate in the family.

Four tiny old women pushed their way through a crowd of onlookers to throw themselves at a reporters feet, holding onto his legs and pleading for help.

Babar All Khan escaped with a small pony cart carrying his wounded sister. She was shot in the ankle last Wednesday at 3 p.m. All Khan said.

Fifty or sixty soldiers came to their village, Haidbadpur, seven miles from Jessore. Come out all you Bengalis, the soldiers shouted. Then they killed those who came out and searched for the others, Ali Khan said.

He and his family were hiding in holes along the riverbank, His young son and his sister darted out of their holes and run for the trees. They made it, but 10 other members of his family were killed,

All Khan owns about 20 acres of land that has belonged 40 his family for generations, but he doubts that he will ever go back. He said he will return only If East Pakistan s Bengalis win their Independence but he is pessimistic about their chances. If the refugees traditional ties to land prove stronger than the fear and hatred of the Pakistan army, however, thousands will drift back to their farms and shops even if the army remains in control.

At present, none of the refugees here admits this possibility and many believe that the Pakistan army is murdering any people who return to their homes. However, ,if the army stops its savagery, the peoples plight in Indian refugee camps is likely to force them to consider returning to Pakistan.

The refugees second alternative is gradually to leave the camps for other places in India. However, West Bengal is already overcrowded and its 44 million people are greatly underemployed. Thousands of additional people, mostly unskilled farmers, will only add to the misery on this side of the border.

Refugees could also choose to become active in the struggle against Pakistan's army. Some East Pakistanis are attempting to organize guerrilla resistance and the refugees provide an enormous manpower pool. However, many or the refugees have already passed up opportunities to help the resistance in favor of coming to India. They are untrained and undisciplined.

A truck driver said he drove resistance fighters around for 10 days, but decided to leave after his brother was shot. A primary school teacher participated in his village's resistance committee, but the committee had no military adviser and took no defensive measures before the army attacked.

There is little resentment among the refugees that the East Pakistan Rifles and other resistance fighters did not stand up to the Pakistan army but chose to retreat from every town and village. However, the refugees generally realize how outgunned and outmanned the resistance forces were.

The refugees are uniformly eager to tell the stories of murder in the belief that more aid will come to them if their suffering is widely known.

As one refugee describes what happened to his family, others crowd around, )waiting for their turns. Each seems fascinated with tales of how others escaped and the stories reinforce the despair of these survivors who have only begun the bleak existence of jobless, penniless refugees.