Massacres

"They listen incredulously as campus police officer Harold E. Rice shouts through a bullhorn: "Attention! This assembly is unlawful! This is an order—disperse immediately!""

"These students are going to have to find out," the general replies grimly, "what law and order is all about."

"Despite the outrage of the dead students' parents, an Ohio grand jury refused to indict any of the guardsmen for the Kent State murders. Ohio's Senator Stephen M. Young called the grand jury's decision "a fraud and a fakery.""

"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (March 5, 1770), which it resembled, it was called a massacre not for the number of its victims but for the wanton manner in which they were shot down."

"I know of no word in the English language other than massacre which better describes the wanton slaughter of thousands of defenseless men, women and children."

"In his speech, he commented on the Birbhum burnings while saying, “I express my condolences on the violent incident in Birbhum, West Bengal. I hope that the state government will definitely get those who committed such a heinous sin on the great land of Bengal punished. He further stated, “I would also urge the people of Bengal to never forgive the perpetrators of such incidents, those who encourage such criminals.”He assured that his government at the centre will take all necessary steps to punish the perpetrators at the latest. “On behalf of the central government, I assure the state that whatever help it wants will be provided to the criminals in getting them punished at the earliest,” he stated. In the function, Partha Chatterjee, senior state Minsiter who was present remarked on the PM’s comments saying,”The state government is duty-bound to ensure that the rule of law should take its course. The culprits will be hunted down and punished.”"

"“We demand President’s rule in West Bengal. Mass killings are happening there, people are fleeing the place… the state is no more liveable,” said actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly, as she expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in West Bengal. “People can’t speak in West Bengal. The government is protecting the murderers. There is no other state where the government kills people after winning elections. We are human beings. We don’t do stone-hearted politics,” Roopa Ganguly further said."

"Taking cognizance of the violence, West Bengal CM Jagdeep Dhankar said he is considerably pained in a video address released on Twitter. “The Birbhum indicates the state is in grip of violence culture and lawlessness,” he wrote."

"It’s true. This violence was unexpected. Nobody expected it. There is victory and defeat in elections, but the way violence started right from the counting centers has never been seen before. To date, this has not been seen anywhere in India. The BJP workers or even the organization were not prepared for this level of violence, this allegation is absolutely true. There have been attacks on our workers. Close to 50,000 workers had to be homeless. Close to 20 people were murdered. During all this, our organization could not help its workers in the slightest."

"The violence that started on the afternoon of May 2, 2021, had only one objective – to break the backbone of the BJP organization. BJP got 38% votes, the Majority of the Hindu vote was in favor of the BJP, which means the support of a large percentage of voters was with us. Therefore, the aim was to create such an environment using violence that in the future, support for BJP should be eliminated, and the backbone of the organization should be broken. The fear should be such that the supporters of the BJP do not come out of the house and the same thing happened."

"Would an alien outsider judge America's performance by My Lai and Wounded Knee or by Lincoln and Jefferson?"

"Suddenly, I heard a single shot from the direction of the troops. Then three or four. A few more. And immediately, a volley. At once came a general rattle of rifle firing then the Hotchkiss guns."

"[T]hen many Indians broke into the ravine; some ran up the ravine and to favorable positions for defense."

"I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, — you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."

"There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce ... A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing ... The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through ... and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys ... came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there."

"I know the men did not aim deliberately and they were greatly excited. I don't believe they saw their sights. They fired rapidly but it seemed to me only a few seconds till there was not a living thing before us; warriors, squaws, children, ponies, and dogs ... went down before that unaimed fire."

"General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three-day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. ... Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life? ... As I see it the battle was more or less a matter of spontaneous combustion, sparked by mutual distrust."

"The whole trouble originated through interested whites, who had gone about most industriously and misrepresented the army and its movements upon all the agencies. The Indians, were in consequence alarmed and suspicious. They had been led to believe that the true aim of the military was their extermination. The troops acted with the greatest kindness and prudence. In the Wounded Knee fight the Indians fired first. The troops fired only when compelled to. I was between both, saw all, and know from an absolute knowledge of the whole affair whereof I say."

"A report by Time Magazine (dated 30th June 1980) read, “In the worst massacre, in the village of Mandai, the tribals first demanded money, then corralled the Bengalis in the village market. The horrified settlers were forced to watch while tribesmen armed with guns, spears and heavy scythes called daos put the torch to dwellings and butchered their occupants.“"

"Ex-Mandai MLA recounted, Manoranjan Debbarma. “Children were spiked to death and wombs of pregnant women were ripped open. We had lived through a horrific, difficult time.”"

"Major R. Rajamani, the commander of the Indian Army unit that reached Mandai on 9th June 1980, compared the brutality of the killings to the ‘1968 My Lai massacre‘ in Vietnam. While speaking to The New York Times, he remarked, “I have heard of My Lai. I wonder whether that was half as gruesome as here.“ He added, “That first day, I saw a six-month-old child chopped into two with each piece lying on either side of his dead mothe. I have never seen anything like it, nor do I want to.”"