How New York Times reported the killings of intellectuals in 1971
Titled “125 Slain in Dacca Area Believed Elite of Bengal”, the report detailed the systematic targeting of the city’s intellectual community and the role of razakars
The New York Times published a report on 18 December 1971 documenting the killings of intellectuals in Dhaka, noting that at least 125 people – believed to be physicians, professors, writers, and teachers – were found murdered in a field outside Dhaka.
Titled "125 Slain in Dacca Area Believed Elite of Bengal", the report detailed the systematic targeting of the city's intellectual community and the role of razakars.
The report describes that all the victims' hands were tied behind their backs and they had been bayoneted, garrotted or shot. They were among an estimated 300 Bengali intellectuals who had been seized by West Pakistani soldiers and locally recruited supporters.
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A digitised version of the article from the NYT's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996, is available on the website. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
The rest of the report reads as follows:
Razakar (pro‐Pakistani) irregulars had apparently held the victims as "hostages" for fair surrender termes. They appeared to have been killed just before Pakistani commanders in the East surrendered two days ago.
Nearby residents said that many other Bengalis had been killed in a neighboring factory and thrown into pits. The razakars were reported still holding out in the factory and they took part in a fight with an Indian patrol.
Two of the razakars who were captured were said to have admitted killing some of the intellectuals, and they were then reportedly beaten to death. The victims found in the pits outside the city lay in pools of water stained with blood, almost unrecognizable because of their wounds.
Sobbing relatives were among the thousands of people who walked into the brick pits, which were about 400 yards from the factory still held by the razakars.
Other razakars, holed up in a mosque, fired at mourners trying to identify bodies.
Meanwhile, the defeated Pakistani Army in Bangladesh was to begin turning in personal arms tomorrow at military camps, pending re-patriation to West Pakistan.
Pakistanis Still Armed
The Pakistini soldiers had been allowed to keep their small weapons until the Indian Army could provide protection against potential reprisal attacks by vengeance‐seeking Bengalis.
In the wake of the defeat of the Pakistani Army, Bengalis have begun taking re enge on persons suspected of having collaborated with the Pakistani Government. Bodies of victims, some with their throats cut by bayonets, lie in the city.
There are about 25,000 Pakistani soldiers in the Dacca area; four days ago, they were preparing to make a final stand in the city.
There are 20,000 more Pakistani troops isolated by the Indian Army at garrisons throughout East Pakistan.
Brigadier Siddiqui, chief of staff of the Pakistani Army Eastern command, said that Indian air superiority, permitting unchallenged helicopter operations, had been the decisive factor in the war.
He said the mobility of the Indians had cut his defending army lines of communication and had prevented Pakistani tactical maneuvers. He estimated Pakistani Army casualties in the East at 5,000 to 6,000, with 5,000 captured.
Near Dacca Stadium, about 8,000 people atended a celebration of the Mukh Bahini or liberation forces, at which Nuril Alam Siddiqui, a Ben gali guerrilla leader, demand ed that West Pakistan release Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the imprisoned leader of the Awami League, the Bengali political party, before Dec. 31. Otherwise, he said, the Mukti Bahini would seek passage through India to attack West Pakistan.
The celebration ended when three young prisoners were beaten and then bayonetted to death by guerrillas.
Officials Arrive
Two Bangladesh officials, Ruhul Quddus, who will head the Bengali civil service, and Police Inspector General Abfe Khalsm, arrived here today to begin establishing a new government.
Former East Pakistani ministers, including Gov. A. M. Malik, were to be moved from the Inter‐Continental Hotel in the Red Cross neutral zone to a military cantonment. The neutral zone will stop functioning tomorrow afternoon.
A mob went to the bombed out United States Information Service office and demanded that the American flag be hauled down and the Bangladesh flag raised The Americans complied.
