Calcutta, Sept 15
Although evidence on the Indo-Pakistan border suggests that the influx of Bengali refugees has waned during the past six weeks, an estimated 25,000 evacuees are still crossing the frontier every day with allegations that Pakistan soldiers, Muslim zealots and the paramilitary Razakar troops are still persecuting isolated villagers.

Their reasons for leaving Pakistan vary, but significantly many of the villagers who crossed the frontier during the past seven days maintain that they were forced to flee to India because of the fighting between Pakistani troops and the Bengali guerrillas.

In many cases the refugees claim that their villages were destroyed by Pakistani troops and the locally recruited Razakars when the authorities discovered that Bengali guerrillas had been operating in a particular village or area. In other cases the villagers say that they were forced to leave their homes under persecution and that their possessions were being looted by Muslim zealots and the Razakars.

As in the past the majority of new refugees who were waiting for rations at the Indian reception centre at the border town of Hasnabad today were Hindus. The officer in charge of the reception centre, Mr C. H. Dey, said that there has been a noticeable decline in the daily influx.

He added: “But they do occasionally come in large numbers. About 2,000 families arrived in boats only yesterday.” He pointed towards a large group of boats on the Ichamati river.

However, compared to the confusion and panic which surrounded this small town in May when as many as 10,000 refugees were arriving every 24 hours, the reception centre is a scene of orderliness and efficiency today.

About 150 Bengalis ware wailing for registration outside the centre and through an independent interpreter I asked them why they had fled from Pakistan. All of them had crossed the frontier within the past week.

Significantly, they assert that the Razakars and Zealots in the Muslim League are now more often responsible for acts of terror than the Pakistani troops. Here are their stories:—

Nagendra Nath Mandal, aged 40, is a farmer from Harinagar village in the district of Khulna. “About 10 days ago the Mukti Bahini (guerrillas) came to the village. They waited there for three days watching the river. On Saturday an Army gunboat came up the river and they attempted to ambush it. But while they were fighting, two other gunboats arrived and the guerrillas had to retreat.
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Crops looted and Bengal houses burnt

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“The Army then machine-gunned thee village and sent Razakars ashore to burn our houses down. I saw four of my friends shot and I ran away with my family”, Mr Mandal said. “I don't know what happened to the other villagers.”

Muhammad Abdul Aziz, aged 35, a Muslim farmer, also described how his village of Pabmasakra in the district of Khulna became a victim of the fighting between the guerrillas and the Pakistani troops. Mr Aziz said that about two months ago a company of West Pakistani troops had been billeted in a large building on the outskirts of the village. Previously the Razakars had entered the village to capture supporters of the Awami League but by and large the majority of the 600 families in the village had been left undisturbed.

About 10 days ago a group of guerrillas, operating from their bases on the border near by. approached the village and launched a sudden attack on the Army post. “After a while they retreated. We did not even see them, but the next morning Pakistani soldiers came into the village and started to beat people up”, Mr Aziz said.

“I and ail able-bodied young men who could have been accused of being guerrillas were told to flee. My father and other elderly people in the village were severely beaten up because they could not give the soldiers information about the guerrillas.”

As a result of the incident nearly 500 of the 600 families in the village have fled to India, the young farmer said.

Kanak Ghosh, aged 55, is a milkman from the village of Baka in, the subdivision of Paikgachi in Khulna district. He crossed into India with his Hindu family three days ago.

Mr Ghosh says that the 200 or so families in the village were all Hindu. “Five days ago Razakars and members of the Muslim League from the neighbouring village of Kailbanu entered our village and accused us of being black marketeers”, he said.

The Razakars did not molest women or loot houses, as they have done in the past, but they burnt down several houses and killed two villagers. Mr Ghosh says that the Razakars wore civilian clothes and carried rifles and revolvers. At least half of the village population have fled to India in the past three days.

The stories continue. Lakshi Pada Charcar, a blacksmith from the village of Moutala, alleges that on the afternoon of September 7 about 25 Razakars. armed with sticks and guns, entered the village to confiscate the jute crop.

Nearly half the 400 Muslim and Hindu families in the village have crossed into India, Mr Charcar says. Other refugees say that they have been persecuted by Muslim Zealots, and it is abundantly clear that a reign of terror continues to force a substantial number of Bengalis into India whatever other reasons might drive them here.