Washington Star/Evening Star

Jessore, EAST PAKISTAN.-Communal violence and military action to put down the rebellion in East Pakistan have wreaked death and devastation here and in Khulna, the province's second port and third ranking city.

In Khulna, newsmen on an army-conducted tour yesterday saw what a non-Bengali resident described as a human slaughter-house. Sheds were said to have been used by East Pakistan's dominant Bengalis in mass killings of Bihari immigrants from India, West Pakistanis and other non-Bengalis during March and early April at the height of the secessionist uprising.

Reporters were shown a wooden frame with chains affixed on top where women and children reportedly were beheaded with knives.

GARROTE, NOOSES SHOWN

There was a form a garrote attached to a tree where the resident said victims were choked to death. Cords attached to one tree were described as hanging nooses.

Bodies were said to have been thrown over a low wall into the river running alongside .

Long rows or shops and homes in the non-Bengali sector of Khulna were badly burned apparently by Bengalis, but other sections including solid brick buildings in the Bengali-dominated town were devastated as if by explosives or Pakistani army artillery.

In Jessore, newsmen saw the grave of a 59-year-old Italian priest reported to have been gunned down by Pakistani soldiers in his mission hospital complex.

Four East Pakistanis, including a mother and 14-year-old boy, also were killed by the troops in the attack, residents said.

According to an authenticated report, the Rev.. Mario Veronesi, who had been here 18 years, walked out of the small mission house the morning of April 4 as two soldiers approached.

He was cut down by automatic fire as he raised his hands, it was reported.

BURIED IN FIRE

A fellow priest buried him nearby the following day, taking 6 1/2 hours because of gunfire whistling around him.

A nun from the mission is reported to have left for the Vatican with the blood-soaked Red Cross badge the priest was wearing when he was shot.

The market area of Jessore looked bombed and burned out. A number of houses and shops were said to have been razed both by Bengalis and the Pakistani army in taking over the town.

A resident described what he called indiscriminate firing by the army seeking to dislodge the rebels who had controlled the town.