Massacres

During the first phase (1958-65), the massacres were effected through organized mob attacks while the law enforcement were restrained. In the final phase (1971), the massacres were effected through a variety of means – indiscriminate firing, summary executions, torture to death at the camps. For the details of the massacres, browse the list of massacres. For some of the well known victims, see the list of eminent victims.

During the first phase of the genocide, the military regime of Ayub Khan pursued an active policy of persecution of the Bengali Hindus with the objective of reducing the population to an extent so that the population of East Pakistan becomes at par with West Pakistan. A series of massacres took place between 1961 and 1964 through organized mob violence that led to deaths of tens of thousands and forced migration of nearly a million.

Organized mob attacks on Bengali Hindu neighborhoods or gatherings, especially when they are busy in religious festivity, was first observed during the Noakhali massacre and then during the massacres of 1950. The law enforcement agencies like the police or military were kept restrained by the administration and the mobs armed with lethal weapons were given a free run. In some cases, the law enforcement agency itself got into the act, as in the Gopalganj massacre.  During the 1964 massacres, the mill workers of Khulna, Dhaka and Narayanganj were provided arms, transport and holidays to attack the Bengali Hindu localities, while the police were kept restrained.

In the final phase of genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Pakistani military regime’s official policy was extermination and/or elimination of the Bengali Hindu population as the final solution to East Pakistan’s Hindu problem. The entire army, paramilitary units and various collaborator organizations worked in tandem to achieve the objective. Massacres were effected through indiscriminate firing and shelling, summary executions and torturing to death at the extermination camps.

In the final phase of the genocide, the Operation Searchlight began with indiscriminate firing and shelling on the Bengali Hindu neighborhoods in Dhaka. In Shankharibazar, both ends of the street were blocked, buildings set on fire and the residents were indiscriminately fired upon as they attempted to escape. In the following weeks, as the Bengali Hindus started fleeing towards India, they were targeted for execution. Often, batches of refugees were intercepted, as in Chuknagar, and indiscriminately fired upon, resulting in mass deaths.

Summary executions were one of the common forms of massacre during the final phase. In the targeted attacks during the Operation Searchlight and later in the ‘Kill and Burn’ missions, the victims were usually rounded up on trumped up charges of sheltering the Muktijoddhas or spying for India. Then they were lined up in front of firing squads and shot dead.

Torturing to death in internment was a characteristic feature of persecution in the final phase of the genocide (1971). The interns were subjected to various forms of torture – beaten up, burned with cigarette butts, had rulers inserted in the anus, pissed upon to name a few. The tortures went on for days until the victims died. Dhirendranath Datta, former MNA and eminent member of the Bengali Hindu society was tortured to death at the Comilla Cantonment. According to eye witness accounts, in his last days he couldn’t stand on his feet. He would crawl on his knees to the bathroom to relieve himself.