DACCA, CITY OF THE DEAD IN……Bangladesh

                                          
TIME,  MAY 3, 1971
Within hours after launching a tank-lad offensive in Dacha and anther East Pakistan cities on the night of March 25, the Pakistan army imposed a Virtual blackout on the correspondent  Dan Coggin, who was Among them, recently trekked back from India by Honda, truck , bus and bicycle to  become the first American journalist to visit Dacca since the fighting started. His reports: Dacca was   always a fairly dreary city, offering slim pleasures beyond the Hotel Intercontinental and A dozen Chinese restaurants that few of its 1,500,000 people could afford. Now, in many ways it has Become a city of the dead. A month after the army struck, unleashing tank guns and automatic wea-Pons against largely unarmed ccivilians in 34 hours of wanton  slaughter. Dacca is still shocked and Shuttered, its remaining inhabitants living in terror under the grip of army control. The exact toll Will never be known, but brobably more than 10,000 were killed in Dacca alone.Perhaps half the city’s population has fled to outlying villages. With the lifting of army blockades At road and river ferry exists, the exodus is resuming. Those who remain venture outdoors only For urgent food shopping . Rice prices  have risen 50% since the army reported  started burning Grain silos in some areas . 14 of the cities 18 civil government is functioning.“Kill the Bastards! On every rooftop, Pakistan’s green-and-white flags hand limply in the steamy Stillness. “We all know that Pakistan is finished, said one Beangali , but we hope the flags will keep The soldiers away. As another from of insurance, portraits of Pakistan late founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and even the current President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, were displayed pro mi-Neatly. But there was no mistaking the surrender. We will neither forgive nor forget, said on ,Bengali. On learning thai I was a sangbadik (journalist), various townspeople led me to mass Graves, to a stairwell where tow professors were shot to death, and to scenes of other atrocities. The Most savage killing occurred in he Old City, where several sections were burned to the ground. Solders poured gasoline around entire blocks, igniting them with flamethrowers, then mowed down people trying to escape the cordons  of free. They ar coming out! a Westerner heard soldiers cry, Kill the bastards!''