The goon squads of General Yahya Khan – the military and its local collaborators – had targeted and killed more than 25,000 Hindus of erstwhile East Pakistan in the first three months of the Liberation War in 1971, according to historians, researchers and journalists. Testimonials of Hindu massacres by PakistanisColonel Nadir Ali, a retired Pakistani Army officer, poet and short story writer, wrote: “My first action was in mid April 1971. The Hamood Ur Rehman Commission Report also mentioned an order, which had been given to kill the Hindus of East Pakistan. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sydney Schanberg covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the sufferings of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the war. British journalist Owen Bennett-Jones wrote: “Lt Colonel Aziz Ahmed Khan reported that in May 1971 there was a written order to kill Hindus and that General Niazi would ask troops how many Hindus they had killed.”

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 26, 2021 00:00 UTC