Published : 10 Dec 2018, 05:04 AM
Updated : 21 Jun 2022, 09:53 PM
DACCA Diary from InterContinental Hotel by Wall Street Journal's Peter R Kann
Friday, Dec 10, 1971
The talk at breakfast is about the 3 a.m. air raid during which several bombs landed close to the hotel. I slept through it. More Bengalis seem to be leaving the city today for relative safety of villages. Bengali friend, in tears, tells me about continuing army massacres of Bengalis in several suburbs. "So many children," he says – and begins to sob. Non-Bengali minority (Biharis) fleeing villages for relative safety of Dacca.
Bengalis in Dacca all seem convinced that the bombs that landed on civilian areas the past two nights, including the one that hit the orphanage, were dropped by Pakistani planes so civilian casualties could be blamed on India. Reliable sources note that the bombs were dropped by propeller planes, not MIGs, and that makeshift bomb rack fell from plane along with bombs. Evidence still circumstantial. All seems incredibly cold-blooded. But one diplomat says "Anyone who has been here since March wouldn't blink an eye at the Paks doing something like that."
One rumor is squelched. Gen. Niazi shows up at hotel gate and is very definitely not in Burma. Under new Red Cross rules he is told that he can not enter the hotel with his weapon.
UN still negotiating with Paks and Indians to bring in evacuation planes. Apparent success. Twenty-four hour cease-fire in air activity in Calcutta-to-Dacca corridor goes into effect 6 p.m. Evacuation planes, at least for women and children, scheduled to fly into Dacca tomorrow morning. But then they've been scheduled before.
It's now exactly one week since general war started.
Peter R Kann joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal in 1964 to become its publisher eventually. In 1972, he earned a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
