Newspaper reports

International Newspaper Reports:

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.
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.

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