JESSORE, DECEMBER 11.-While the war raged on 16 miles to the south,
the two presiding officials of the self-proclaimed People's Republic
of Bangla Desh made their first public appearance on their own soil,
to the cheers of hundreds in this district capital.

Shouts of "Joi (Hail) Bangla" greeted acting Bangla Desh President
Syed Nazrul Islam and Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed, who arrived by
car from Calcutta behind two Jeeps full of armed Mukti Bahini Bengali
guerrilla escorts. Four rickety Indian buses carried the 128 newsmen
who accompanied the two Bangla Desh leaders on the six-hour journey
from Calcutta.

Jessore fell to the Indian army and Bengali guerrillas last Monday
night, and there was no evidence here of battle. There were however,
accounts from residents of mass executions, mass rapes and pillage by
West Pakistan's occupation army.

Jessore's jail and police station were holding some 900 persons
suspected of having collaborated with the Pakistani troops, according
to district officials. The suspected collaborators were rounded up
after the Indians and Bengalis took control.

Acting President Islam told the newly liberated constituency that
"You will have complete religious freedom from now on. From now on,
no one can abrogate it for Hindus and Moslems and Christians and
Buddhists. There will be no more politics based on religion."

HINDUS STILL MISSING

As yet. however, Jessore's Hindu population was still missing. The
only sign of it was the empty Hindu quarter, in which many of the
dwellings had been razed to the ground during the Pakistani
occupation.

Remaining Hindu homes had black hands painted on the entrances.
Elsewhere in East Bengal, Hindu residences were designated during the
occupation by a yellow capital H.

Two Italian Catholic missionaries, Fathers Antonio Alberton, 50, and
Francis Spagnolo, 58, spoke of a Pakistani reign of terror that began
early last April and continued intermittently until the Pakistani
forces were driven out this week. One of the priests estimated that
10,000 in Jessore and its environs had been slaughtered by the
Pakistanis.

During the week of April 4 to April 10 Father Alberton related, the
streets and houses of Jessore were full of bodies of local residents
who had been executed in batches by the Pakistani soldiers and the
"razakars," or collaborators.

The missionary, who also functioned as a physician in Fatima hospital
here, said that early in the occupation "There were dead bodies
everywhere and dogs eating the flesh of men-a terrible thing to see."
A fellow missionary, Father Mario Veronesi, was gunned down in front
of his rectory by a Pakistani soldier with a Sten gun, Father
Alberton said.

In another incident, he said. Pakistani soldiers took several young
women out of the Christian mission compound, where a group of 300
residents had sought refuge and raped them, at gunpoint on the
mission grounds.

Young Bengali women from Jessore were rounded up by the soldiers and
kept naked inside the military compound to satisfy the garrison, he
said.

THE HIDING, THE VANISHED

Today I could count fewer than half a dozen women in this city with a
normal population of about 50,000. Many were in hiding and just
beginning to return, it was explained. Others had vanished during the
occupation and there was no accounting for their disappearance.

In the nearby community of Dhikargacha, a group of townsmen stood
beside the two blown-up bridges over the Kabatachaki River and also
spoke of the disappearance of the women.

Izzatali Munshi, a 52-year-old deliveryman with sunken craters in
each cheek, stood on the bank and recounted the experience of the
occupation.

"The Pakistani soldiers and the razakars lined people up and tied
their hands. Then they would cut their jugular veins with knives and
bayonets and throw them in there." He pointed to the river. "No young
woman would dare come out of hiding, nor the young boys, who would be
killed. On market day and prayer day, people were too frightened to
come out."

In Dhikargacha, as in Jessore, the residents were beginning to return
to their homes, some of them carrying their life's possessions on
their heads.

EXPERT DEMOLITION

Indian soldiers and local residents installed a German-manufactured
pontoon bridge to replace the two spans that had been blown up with
impressive expertness by the retreating Pakistani soldiers. The main
bridge, a massive concrete structure, had five spans dangling into
the muddy Kabatachaki River.

The Indians and the Bengali townspeople seemed to be co-existing on
the most amiable terms.

An Indian private, who had been fighting in East Bengal, spiritedly
told me: "We are here fighting for the freedom of these people. As
you can see, they have been slaves. I just heard that my own town in
Kashmir has been captured by the Pakistanis. But I don't care. I am
fighting here in Bangla Desh. Now we are all Indians."