On March 25, 1971 the Pakistani military forcibly confined all foreign reporters to the Hotel Intercontinental (currently the Dhaka Sheraton) in Dhaka. That night after 11pm the military launched its genocide campaign against the Bengali civilian population of then East Pakistan. The reporters were able to see the tank and artillary attacks on civilians from their hotel windows. Two days later, as Dhaka burned the reporters were expelled from the country – their notes and tapes were confiscated. One of the expelled reporters was Sidney Schanberg of the New York Times. He would return to East Pakistan in June 1971 to report on the massacres in Bengali towns and villages. He would again be expelled by the Pakistan military at the end of June.
Two foreign reporters escaped the roundup on March 25. One of them was Simon Dring of the Daily Telegraph. He evaded capture by hiding on the roof of the Hotel Intercontinental. Dring was able to extensively tour Dhaka the next day and witness first hand the slaughter that was taking place. Days later Simon Dring was able to leave East Pakistan with his reporter’s notes. On March 30, 1971 the Daily Telegraph published Simon Dring’s front page story of the slaughter in Dhaka that the army perpetrated in the name of "God and a united Pakistan".
The massacres in Dacca were only part of the story however. The Pakistan army had begun a campaign of genocide that extended to all major cities and towns in Bangladesh and then moved out into the countryside to terrorize, murder and rape Bengali villagers. With foreign reporters expelled and a complete news censorship in place, the Pakistan army declared that the situation in East Pakistan was "normal".
However as Bengali refugees fled to neighboring India they brought with them stories of horror. The refugee flow had reached millions and by December 1971 about 10 million Bengalis had fled East Pakistan.
In April 1971 the Pakistan army flew in 8 Pakistani reporters from West Pakistan for guided tours with the military. Their mission was to tell the story of normalcy. The reporters went back to West Pakistan after their military guided tours and dutifully filed stories declaring all was normal in East Pakistan. However, one of the 8 reporters had a crisis of conscience. This reporter was Anthony Mascarenhas, the assistant editor of the West Pakistani newspaper Morning News.
On May 18, 1971 Mascarenhas flew to London and walked into the offices of the Sunday Times offering to write the true story of what he had witnessed in East Pakistan. After getting agreement from the Sunday Times he went back to Pakistan to retrieve his family. On June 13, 1971 with Mascarenhas and his family safely out of Pakistan the Sunday Times published a front page and center page story entitled "Genocide". It was the first detailed eyewitness account of the genocide published in a western newspaper.
In June of 1971, under pressure and in need of economic assistance, Pakistan allowed a World Bank team to visit East Pakistan. The World Bank team reported back that East Pakistan lay in ruins. One member of the team reported that the East Pakistani town of Kushtia looked "like a World War II German town having undergone strategic bombing attacks" as a result of the Pakistani army’s "punitive action" on the town. He also reported that the army "terrorizes the population, particularly aiming at the Hindus and suspected members of the Awami League". The Word Bank president, Robert McNamara, suppressed the public release of the report. To no avail. The report was leaked to the New York Times.
Dispite the Pakistani military’s best efforts at hiding the truth about their genocide campaign against Bengalis, reports filtered out of East Pakistan to the outside world thanks in part to the efforts of determined foreign news reporters. Following are foreign newspaper reports from the beginning of the genocide in March 1971 to its end. They chronicle the bloody birth of Bangladesh.
| April 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4/3/1971 | New York Times | A resistance fighter tells his story |
| 4/4/1971 | New York Times | Britons tell of killings |
| 4/4/1971 | New York Times | EDITORIAL: ‘All part of a game’ – a grim and deadly one |
| 4/4/1971 | Sunday Telegraph | Starvation threat to E. Pakistan |
| 4/7/1971 | New York Times | EDITORIAL: Bloodbath in Bengal |
| 4/9/1971 | New York Times | Families flee town |
| 4/13/1971 | The Guardian | PICTURE: Refugees flee Kushtia |
| 4/14/1971 | The Guardian | EDITORIAL: Rhetoric and reality |
| 4/14/1971 | New York Times | Bengalis form a cabinet as the bloodshed goes on |
| 4/17/1971 | New York Times | Hours of terror for a trapped Bengali officer |
| 4/18/1971 | New York Times | In this case, war is hell for one side only |
| 4/25/1971 | New York Times | Refugees worry Indian officials |
| May 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5/2/1971 | New York Times | The political tidal wave that struck East Pakistan |
| 5/6/1971 | New York Times | Foreign news reports criticized |
| 5/7/1971 | New York Times | Pakistani general disputes reports of casualties |
| 5/9/1971 | New York Times | Bengalis depict how a priest died |
| 5/10/1971 | New York Times | All serious opposition seems ended in East Pakistan |
| 5/12/1971 | New York Times | EDITORIAL: The vultures of Bengal |
| 5/13/1971 | New York Times | Army men in Pakistan see heresy in Western style education there |
| 5/14/1971 | The Baltimore Sun | EDITORIAL: Pakistan story |
| 5/16/1971 | New York Times | That shadow in the sky is a vulture – a fat one |
| 5/25/1971 | New York Times | Pakistani strife said to continue |
| 5/27/1971 | The Guardian | LETTER: East Bengal atrocities |
| June 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6/9/1971 | New York Times | Disease, hunger and death stalk refugees along India’s border |
| 6/13/1971 | The Sunday Times | EDITORIAL: Stop the killing |
| 6/13/1971 | The Sunday Times | Genocide (Front Page story) |
| 6/13/1971 | The Sunday Times | Genocide (Center Page story) |
| 6/13/1971 | New York Times | Pakistani charges massacre by army |
| 6/20/1971 | New York Times | The only way to describe it is hell |
| 6/21/1971 | New York Times | East Pakistan is reopened to newsmen |
| 6/23/1971 | New York Times | EDITORIAL: Abetting repression |
| 6/25/1971 | Hong Kong Standard | EDITORIAL: Another Genghis |
| July 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7/1/1971 | New York Times | Correspondent of the Times ousted from East Pakistan |
| 7/4/1971 | New York Times | An alien army imposes its will |
| 7/4/1971 | New York Times | Hindus are targets of army terror in an East Pakistani town |
| 7/13/1971 | New York Times | World Bank unit says Pakistan aid is pointless now |
| 7/13/1971 | New York Times | Excerpts from World Bank group’s report on East Pakistan |
| 7/14/1971 | New York Times | EDITORIAL: Pakistan condemned |
| 7/14/1971 | New York Times | West Pakistan pursues subjugation of Bengalis |
| 7/17/1971 | New York Times | A Pakistani terms Bengalis ‘chicken hearted’ |
| 7/23/1971 | Wall Street Journal | A Nation Divided |
| August 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8/1/1971 | New York Times | Why they fled |
| 8/1/1971 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | EDITORIAL: Obligations in Pakistan |
| 8/5/1971 | New York Times | 14 Pakistani aides quit missions in US |
| 8/5/1971 | New York Times | The ravaged people of East Pakistan |
| 8/12/1971 | Daily Telegraph | PICTURE: Senator Kennedy visits refugee camp |
| 8/17/1971 | Daily Telegraph | Halt US aid for Yahya, says shaken Kennedy |
| 8/17/1971 | New York Times | Kennedy in India terms Pakistani drive genocide |
| 8/17/1971 | Washington Post | Kennedy charges genocide in Pakistan |
| September 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9/23/1971 | New York Times | Bengali refugees say soldiers continue to kill, loot and burn |
| October 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 10/14/1971 | New York Times | Horrors of East Pakistan turning hope into despair |
| 10/17/1971 | New York Times | The grim fight for Bangla Desh |
| 10/24/1971 | New York Times | Pakistan offers seized TV films |
| November 1971 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 11/17/1971 | New York Times | East Pakistan town after raid by army |
| 11/21/1971 | New York Times | Razakars: Pakistani group helps both sides |
| January 1972 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1/3/1972 | New York Times | A journalist is linked to murder of Bengalis |
| 1/6/1972 | New York Times | Texts of secret documents on top level US discussions of Indian-Pakistani war |
| 1/9/1972 | Daily Telegraph | Sheikh Mujib flies in and sees Heath |
| 1/9/1972 | New York Times | Backstage with the crisis managers |
| 1/10/1972 | Daily Telegraph | Yahya Khan accused of sex orgies |
| 1/10/1972 | Washington Post | The killings at Hariharpara |
| 1/11/1972 | New York Times | Sheik Mujib home |
| 1/14/1972 | New York Times | Text of memo on Indian-Pakistan war |
| 1/16/1972 | New York Times | Hindu refugees back in Dacca find themselves without homes |
| 1/18/1972 | New York Times | Bengali wives raped in war are said to face ostracism |
| 1/23/1972 | New York Times | ‘I’m alive!’ is still big news |
| 1/24/1972 | New York Times | Bengalis land a vast cemetery |
| 1/30/1972 | Washington Post | Bengalis bodies found |
| February 1972 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2/5/1972 | New York Times | US sent arms to Pakistan despite pledge to Congress |
| March 1972 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3/5/1972 | New York Times | Killing of babies feared in Bengal |
| 3/18/1972 | New York Times | India opens way for Dacca trials |
| 3/22/1972 | Washington Post | UN asked to aid Bengali abortions |
| May 1972 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5/12/1972 | New York Times | Dacca raising the status of women while aiding rape victims |
| July 1972 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7/23/1972 | New York Times | The rapes of Bangladesh |
I cannot stop my TEARS. Many many thanks.
MMR Jalal
“ Pheeray Dekhun Ekattor Ghuray Darak Bangladeshâ€
its good initiative.
regards
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My friend, while you are single-handedly undertaking this noble task of documentation, our local government is neglecting our own history in our own capital. With the real sites gone, ignorance, forgetfulness and denial will become that much easier.
DhakaShohor, that article is very sad indeed.
I got an email the other day from someone who lamented that a number of young people in Dhaka this person spoke to said that Razakars did not exist. Apparently they claim that Razakars were made up by the Awami League for political reasons.
In this kind of an environment, I can see why the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders (that is, war criminals and anti-liberation forces) can now make the absurd claim that there are no war criminals or anti-liberation forces in Bangladesh.
Its a truly sad state of affairs. All I and others can do is make the history available for all to read and see. Successive military coups in Bangladesh have simply destroyed the history – in many cases literally ripping pages out of history books. How sad.
It’s so sad to see how young peoples lack of knowledge and ignorance about history.. God knows when we will see these war criminals pay their debts..
Please keep up the good writing.. cz this might be the only place left where the next generations will seek the victory.
ah.. sorry for the typo .. the last word meant to be “History” on my previous comment
I want answers from those pakistani soldiers, I want someone to find those cowards who are having a great life in pakistan with their families!!! I want to see them punished for the crimes they have committed to the innocent girls of Bangladesh!!!
thanks a lot for such collection. It will help writers and researchers.
thanks a lot
The July 1972 article was incredible. I’m so moved by all of this. Thank you so much for making this accessible to my generation.
-Sarah
Your effort in recording the history of Bangladesh is not only praiseworthy but also a necessity for the next generations. A nation without the true history is like a house built on sand without the foundation. The foreign newspaper and magazine reports on the 1971 events in East Pakistan are an invaluable sources for writing the true history of Bangladesh.
Please keep up the good work.
its an enormous effort, no doubt. thanks for such an informative site. specially the newspaper clips, archived here; are an excellent collection.
thanks again.
i heard that there were some telegrams sent from the then east pakistan US embassy to USA during 71 which covered day to day informations as well as many other relevant information. does this site have any link to those or can anyone give me any link to those documents.
thank you.
my greater gratitude to u….for what u have written on our country.
I am an Indian deeply interested in Indian Military History and i am also a self-confessed Banglaphile.
You have done great service to the Memory of the Liberation War 1971 by collecting such rare(and i might add expensively procured)archives .It would have been wonderful if you could have also given links to some videos(news clips, interviews, commentaries) in relation with the War.
Nonetheless, A very well done job