Newspaper reports

International Newspaper Reports:
Anthony's Mascarenhas' Sunday Times artilce published on June 13, 1971

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”.

Click here for selected quotes from different international Newspaper reports. You can find various chronological reports in the tables below. Click the live links to read the reports.

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.

newsweek-020871.jpgIn 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.

March 1971
3/27/1971 Daily Telegraph Civil war flares in E. Pakistan
3/27/1971 Daily Telegraph EDITORIAL: Pakistan’s civil war
3/27/1971 Daily Telegraph Jinnah’s dream of unity dissolves in blood
3/27/1971 The Age (Australia) Dacca breaks with Pakistan
3/27/1971 The Times of London Heavy fighting as Sheikh Mujibur Declares E. Pakistan independent.
3/27/1971 The Boston Globe East Pakistan secedes: civil war breaks out
3/27/1971 The New York Times Leader of rebels in East Pakistan reported seized
3/28/1971 Sunday Telegraph Army take over after night of shelling
3/28/1971 Sunday Telegraph EDITORIAL: The victims
3/28/1971 Sunday Telegraph Pakistani bombers ‘hit rebel town’
3/28/1971 New York Times Army expels 35 foreign newsmen from Pakistan
3/28/1971 New York Times Artillary used
3/28/1971 New York Times Toll called high
3/29/1971 Daily Telegraph Army in complete control
3/29/1971 Daily Telegraph Casualties likely to be heavy
3/29/1971 Daily Telegraph East wing sealed off
3/29/1971 Daily Telegraph EDITORIAL: Divide or rule
3/29/1971 Daily Telegraph No mercy in Pakistan fighting
3/29/1971 New York Times Sticks and spears against tanks
3/29/1971 The Age (Australia) EDITORIAL: Pakistan tragedy
3/29/1971 The Age (Australia) Pakistanis rally to Sheik’s call
3/29/1971 The Age (Australia) War comes at last to a divided nation
3/29/1971 The Age (Australia) When tanks took over the talking
3/29/1971 The Sydney Morning Herald EDITORIAL: Plunge into chaos
3/30/1971 Daily Telegraph Tanks crush revolt in Pakistan
3/30/1971 Daily Telegraph Reporter slips net
3/30/1971 New York Times Heavy killing reported
3/31/1971 The Guardian Heavy fighting and burning in Chittagong
3/31/1971 New York Times EDITORIAL: In the name of Pakistan
April 1971
4/1/1971 New York Times Appaling tragedy in East Pakistan
4/3/1971 New York Times A resistance fighter tells his story
4/4/1971 The Sunday Times Nicholas Tomalin witnesses a massacre
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
4/5/1971 Newsweek Pakistan plunges into civil war
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
4/16/1971 CBS Evening News East Pakistani Refugees Fleeing to India
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
4/18/1971 New York Times Keating report stirs Pakistanis
4/19/1971 Newsweek Pakistan: Reign of Terror
4/25/1971 New York Times Refugees worry Indian officials
4/26/1971 Newsweek Pakistan: Vultures and Wild Dogs
May 1971
5/1/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review India-Pakistan: warclouds mass
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
5/7/1971 Washington Post Aide admits massacre in East Pakistan
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
5/12/1971 Washington Evening Star Vultures too full to fly: East Pakistani Calamity defies belief
5/13/1971 New York Times Army men in Pakistan see heresy in Western style education there
5/13/1971 The Baltimore Sun US asked not to aid Pakistan
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
5/16/1971 The Boston Globe “Jai Bangla” A Bengali cry of national pride, now muted
5/22/1971 Saturday Review Genocide in East Pakistan
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
6/10/1971 Le Monde, France Bengal corpses in the wake of a crusading army
6/10/1971 Reuters Move to cut Aid to Pakistan
6/10/1971 Washington Post East Pakistan : A Wound Unhealed
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
6/18/1971 LIFE They are dying so fast that we can’t keep count
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
6/28/1971 Newsweek (Page 43-44) The Terrible Blood Bath of Tikka Khan
July 1971
7/1/1971 New York Times Correspondent of the Times ousted from East Pakistan
7/3/1971 New Yorker The talk of the town; Notes and Comments
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
7/11/1971 The Sunday Times A regime of thugs and bigots
7/11/1971 The Sunday Times The Repression of Bengal
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
7/14/1971 The Boston Globe Plea from CARE
7/16/1971 New Statesman, London West Both Sides of Disaster : On refugees
7/17/1971 New York Times A Pakistani terms Bengalis ‘chicken hearted’
7/23/1971 Wall Street Journal A Nation Divided
7/31/1971 The Economist, London Time is running out in Bengal
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
8/14/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review A people’s war
8/14/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review Pakistan – Blow to Confidence Page 1, Page 2
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
8/28/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review Who is my neighbor?
8/28/1971 Los Angeles Times Pakistan Arms Dispute Exaggerated, U.S. Says
8/28/1971 Los Angeles Times India Priest Pleads for Aid in Pakistan Crisis
September 1971
9/3/1971 The Times, London Statement by Dr. Peter Shore, British M.P.
9/4/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review East Pakistan: the avengers
9/4/1971 Los Angeles Times East Pakistan leaders sworn in
9/11/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review Pakistan, a little hope
9/19/1971 Los Angeles Times Agha Khan Yields on Constitution
9/23/1971 New York Times Bengali refugees say soldiers continue to kill, loot and burn
9/25/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review Fighters of Darkness
October 1971
10/6/1971 Los Angeles Times Pakistan Tells U.N. of Acts of War by India
10/10/1971 The Sunday Times Pakistan: The propaganda War Page 1, Page 2
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
10/18/1971 The Guardian Dhaka Guerillas start offensive
10/24/1971 New York Times Pakistan offers seized TV films
10/26/1971 The Sunday Times Stop the slaughter
November 1971
11/5/1971 New York Times Wave of Sabotage in East Bengal as border tension rises
11/9/1971 New York Times Bengal Guerillas set up number of assassinations and bombings
11/13/1971 Los Angeles Times Rogers Fears Indo-Pakistan War Soon
11/13/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review India-Pakistan: UNDECLARED WAR
11/16/1971 Los Angeles Times India, Pakistan May Go to War Over East Bengal–and Add to the Suffering
11/17/1971 New York Times East Pakistan town after raid by army
11/20/1971 Far Eastern Economic Review Faith in Bengal’s Fighters
11/21/1971 New York Times Razakars: Pakistani group helps both sides
11/27/1971 Los Angeles Times Jessore May Hold Key to Pakistani Outcome
11/27/1971 Los Angeles Times U.S. Says It Is Trying to Ease Crisis
11/27/1971 Los Angeles Times Heavy Pakistan Fighting reported
December 1971
12/4/1971 New York Times Mrs. Gandhi’s statement
12/6/1971 New York Times The wringing of hands
12/7/1971 New York Times Dacca listens and waits
12/9/1971 New York Times Bengalis dance and shout at liberation of Jessore
12/9/1971 New York Times Pakistan’s holy war
12/10/1971 New York Times India reports foe in rout in East as encirclement of Dacca gains
12/10/1971 The Harvard Crimson Pakistanis Retreat to Dacca
12/10/1971 The Evening Star (Washington) Jubilant Begalis celebrate freedom
12/12/1971 New York Times The crucial fact is that Pakistanis are hated
12/15/1971 New York Times Forces closing in
12/15/1971 Washington Post Witness called E. Pakistan terror beyond description
12/16/1971 New York Times Bhutto denounces council and walks out in tears
12/16/1971 New York Times Text of message from General Manekshaw to General Niazi
12/16/1971 New York Times Bombing is halted
12/16/1971 The Times of London Pakistani General, near to tears, signs at racecourse ceremony
12/16/1971 The Times of London Parliament’s joyful ovation for Mrs. Gandhi
12/17/1971 New York Times 2 men at a table; march to Dacca
12/17/1971 New York Times In Dacca killings amid the revelry
12/17/1971 New York Times Statements by Mrs. Gandhi on truce and surrender
12/17/1971 New York Times The surrender document
12/19/1971 New York Times 125 slain in Dacca area believed elite of Bengal
12/20/1971 New York Times Not to be forgotten
12/21/1971 New York Times A village ablaze, a blown bridge
12/22/1971 New York Times Who knows how many millions have been killed
12/29/1971 New York Times Guerrillas seek lost relatives
12/29/1971 New York Times Hindu refugees return, find ruins in East Pakistan
12/30/1971 New York Times A day of terror for 50,000 Bengalis
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

Original: Mashuqur Rahman, MMR Jalal & NY Bangla with updates of more links.

Other reports:

TIME Magazine:

1969:

April 04, 1969: The army takes over Pakistan

1970:

December 6, 1970: East Pakistan: The Politics of Catastrophe

1971:

April 5, 1971: Pakistan -toppling over the brink

Raise your hand and join me

April 12, 1971: Pakistan: Round 1 to the West

April 26, 1971: Pakistan: The Push toward the Borders

May 3, 1971 : Dacca – The city of the dead

June 21, 1971: The Bengali Refugees: A Surfeit of Woe

July 5, 1971: The most fearful consequence

August 2, 1971: Pakistan: The Ravaging of Golden Bengal

August 23, 1971: Mujib’s secret trial

Oct 25, 1971: East Pakistan: Even the Skies Weep

Dec. 6, 1971: Conflict in Asia: India v Pakistan

  • A letter from the publisher
  • India and Pakistan: Poised for War
  • Hindu and Moslem: The Gospel of Hate
  • Dec. 13, 1971:

  • India and Pakistan: Over the Edge
  • Dec. 20, 1971 The Bloody Birth of Bangladesh

  • Out Of War, a Nation is Born
  • The U.S.: A Policy in Shambles
  • Dec. 27, 1971:

  • India: Easy victory, Uneasy Peace
  • “We Know How the Parisains Felt”
    Time correspondent Dan Coggin, who covered the war from the Pakistani
    side, was in Dacca when that city surrendered. (His report)
  • 1972:

    January 3, 1972: Ali Bhutto Begins to Pick Up the Pieces

    Vengeance in Victory

    January 10, 1972: Painful adjustment.

    January 17, 1972: Mujib’s Road from Prison to Power

    Great man or Rabble-Rouser?

    January 24, 1972: A hero returns home

    February 14, 1972: Recognizing reality

    February 28, 1972: Bleak Future

    April 3, 1972: Not yet a country

    1973:

    January 1, 1973: Not Yet Shonar Bangla

    September 17, 1973: Wrapping Up the War

    1974:

    April 12, 1974: End of a Bad Dream

    1975:

    September 1, 1975: After the Massacre

    December 8, 1975: The Border of Tension

    The New York Times article abstracts:

    April 1st week, 1971 article abstracts with ISBN No.

    April 2nd week, 1971 article abstracts with ISBN No.

    April 3rd week, 1971 article abstracts with ISBN No.

    April 4th week, 1971 article abstracts with ISBN No.

    May 1st week, 1971 article abstracts with ISBN No.

    Indian Newspaper Reports:

    The Liberation Times [TLT]- is a commemoration of the 30th
    Anniversary of India’s greatest Military Victory in the last century
    and the birth of a new nation – Bangladesh. TLT tracks the day to day
    events of the short 14-Day war, that took place in 1971. Click here for the news reports.

    Pakistani Newspaper Reports:

    Pakistan Observer (March 26-December 16, 1971)

    Dawn (March 1-March 26, 1971)

    Daily Morning News, Dhaka Edition March -December 1971

    Bangladesh Observer

    December 1971
    12/18/1971 Bangladesh Comes into being
    12/19/1971 Intellectuals murdered in cold blood
    12/31/1971 Pak army killed one lakh men in Ctg.
    January 1972
    1/4/1972 8000 killed in Satkhira by Pak army
    1/31/1972 Fresh evidence of mass killings in Khulna
    February 1972
    2/2/1972 Mass graves found in Jhalakati, Sirajganj
    2/3/1972 More mass graves found in Comilla
    2/4/1972 Horrid tale of Pak army bestiality
    2/4/1972 Over one lakh killed in Khulna alone
    2/4/1972 Teachers killed, schools destroyed in Sirajganj
    2/4/1972 Khulna’s days of terror
    2/5/1972 Pak army butchered 10,000 in Sylhet area
    2/5/1972 20,000 killed in Comilla
    2/7/1972 4000 killed in Bera and Bonainagar
    2/7/1972 Many mass graves found in Pabna
    2/7/1972 Pak army perpetrated inhuman crime on women in Natore
    2/7/1972 Thousand My Lais
    2/10/1972 Pak barbarity in Thakurgaon
    2/11/1972 75,000 killed in Dinajpur
    2/11/1972 60,000 killed in Rangpur
    2/12/1972 Pakistan army killed 10,000 in Akhaura, Chandpur
    2/16/1972 Pak army killed 10,000 people in Narail alone
    2/17/1972 Pak army killed 30,000 persons in Hajiganj
    2/18/1972 Mass graves found in Satkhira

    Bangla Links:

  • Translations of international news articles –বিদেশী পত্রিকায় মুক্তিযুদ্ধ
  • Daily Sangram and Daily Pakistan – selected links – মুক্তিযুদ্ধের বিপক্ষের শক্তি ও পাকিস্তানের দোসররা যা বলেছে ও করেছে
  • Source: Mashuqur Rahman, Kean University, Vidyasoft, NY Bangla

    5 thoughts on “Newspaper reports

    1. Pingback: Η απελευθέρωση της Ντάκα και το “κουκούλωμα” της ιστορίας του Πακιστάν · Global Voices στα Ελληνικά

    2. Rahul Rema

      Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m inspired!
      Very useful info particularly the remaining part I deal with such info a Lot. I was looking for this particular info for a very lengthy time.
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    3. Pingback: Between fine leg and silly mid-on – GERRY THE KENNY

    4. Tuhin Ahmed

      How I will get Bangladesh Observer news cutting of March – April 1972? Here I can see only up to Feb 1972.

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