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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 14. 28 June 1972

Damage in the Educational Sector

Damage in the Educational Sector

Educational Institutes and the intelligentsia were the prime targets of the Pakistani army the Razakas and the Badar Bahini. Amongst intellectuals, teachers and lecturers were prime targets At Dacca University, for instance, 19 lecturers were shot. In rural areas, damage to life and property was considerably worse, but as yet no figures are available. If a village was suspected of assisting freedom fighters, or housing the parents of freedom fighters, it was totally or partially destroyed, and the residents harassed or killed. A typical example is the fate of the Shajahanpur Railway School on the outskirts of Dacca. This school of 26 teachers and 900 students was completely destroyed because it was suspected of being a hideout.

At Dacca University, in addition to the 19 lecturers killed, 27 other university employees were shot, and, as a consequence of a rampage through the Halls of Residence by the Pakistani army, 125 students were killed. These students were shot in cold blood, then carried by fellow students to the open ground in front of the Hall and buried in quickly dug graves. The students who carried their colleagues were in turn shot.

About 60% or 6,000 of the students who were at Dacca joined the freedom fighters, and many of these lost their lives in the fighting. When the University opened in February of this year about 65% of students had returned.

In addition to life and property, extensive damage and destruction was done to educational equipment and library books. At the Agricultural University at Mymersingh, for instance, a seven year research project in the poultry section which was bringing in a new breed of poultry was brought to nought by killing the poultry. At the same place all furniture, books and clothing were thrown into the courtyard and burned. Similarly, of two shipments of scientific and educational equipment recently ordered by Jahangirnager University one was destroyed, the other diverted to Karachi. Again all the slide-rules and instrument boxes at Dacca University were totally destroyed. That University is also reported as having lost 25,000 books.

As a consequence of the army crack-down, many students and teachers were forced to flee, leaving behind all their possessions. When they later returned they found their houses ransacked, and everything valuable destroyed. In several cases life long savings of the teachers were destroyed A similar fate befell the property of students left behind in Halls of Residence. Thus, these students who have now returned have little more than the clothes that they stand up in.

During the fighting a number of the students contracted diseases such as smallpox and scabies The necessary shots for cure and immunisation are not available locally. There is, therefore, great need to supply medicaments and medical supplies to stabilize the health of the student community.