Samar Guha

"Nazimuddin, the first premier of East Bengal, very tactfully managed the affairs of the province for the first eight months of Pakistan ... A year of Pakistan rolled over. Soon a complete reversal of Govt. policy towards the conscious Hindus became glaringly manifest. East Bengal police suddenly became very active with repressive measures against the conscious non-Muslims. Large number of [Hindu] houses, including those of very respectable gentry who had nothing to do with politics, were searched and many arrests made. At the time of house searches and arrests big army and police demonstrations were held to create a sense of terror in the mind of the non-Muslims. A further attack came upon the non-Muslims from the side of the Muslim mob ... Cries of ‘saboteurs’, ‘enemy agents’, “fifth-columnists’, ‘disloyal elements’, etc. were raised by the Pakistan press and responsible official and non-official Muslim leaders almost everywhere in East Bengal. Before a year of the new state was completed, virtually a reign of terror was let loose upon the life of both the urban and rural non-Muslims by the police as well as the officially inspired Muslim mob ... Govt. propaganda made the Muslim masses firmly suspicious that every Hindu in Pakistan was a fifth column of the Indian Union ... In many places, local boards and municipalities, having Hindu majorities, were arbitrarily suspended and their control taken over by the Govt.”"