"Behind Pakistan's ' Iron Curtain ' in East Bengal ! I wouldn't like to think of it , for it is a tale of horror , hatred and hysteria , a tale of human degradation . Horror is written large on the face of every non - Muslim in East Bengal. . It is not the type of horror associated with war-time conditions among civilised people , but horror of the jungle , of man turned beast . I can think of “behind the iron curtain" only in terms of a mad house, a vast prison, the workshop of Satan - or a combination of all three.... What has happened in East Bengal was organised political ‘pogrom’, similar to those resorted to by Nazis. That the police officials have had a great hand in these events have been conclusively proved. ‘There is no getting away from the fact that the lead was shown by official quarters which gave a free hand to armed miscreants of the majority community who held sway over different parts of East Bengal for a few days, completely dislocating the edifice of law and order in the province. Consequently, the members of the minority communities who were the sufferers. to-day wail under the shadow of a great tragedy with their faith in law and order rudely shaken and their confidence lost. “Whatever be the cause adduced to these events by official quarters, the fact remains that throughout the State, it was the minorities who were killed. It was their homes which were looted and burnt, it was their temples and ashrams desecrated and plundered. It was their women who were abducted and ravished and it was they who underwent threats of forcible conversion or extinction. The reasons are not far to seek, Consistent anti-Indian and anti-Hindu propaganda by Ministers and Muslim leaders, persistently carried on since partition, created a feeling of hatred in the minds of even the lowest strata of Muslims against the minorities. What has happened is not a sudden outburst of communal frenzy, but a logical result of the policy followed by the East Bengal Government. Distrust of Hindus was sedulously preached both from the press and platform. Even responsible ministers have expressed their distrust of Hindus in their utterancess both in"
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Wilfred Lazarus, March 26, 1950 in Amrita Bazar Patrika, quoted in Kamra A. J. (2000). The prolonged partition and its pogroms : testimonies on violence against Hindus in East Bengal 1946-64. pp. 169ff
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1950_East_Pakistan_riots
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1950 East Pakistan riots
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