Perpetrator: Muslim League

Year: 1946

Number: 5000 Hindus killed, 95% of the population of 400,000 forced to convert to Islam, women raped.

Massacre started on 10 October, day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja and continued unabated for about a week. It is estimated that over 5000 Hindus were killed, hundreds of Hindu women were raped and thousands of Hindu men and women were forcibly converted to Islam. Around 50,000 to 75,000 survivors were sheltered in temporary relief camps in Comilla, Chandpur, Agartala and other places. Apart from that around 50,000 Hindus remained marooned in the affected areas.

“Worst of all was the plight of women. Several of them had to watch their husbands being murdered and then be forcibly converted and married to some of those responsible for their death. Those women had a dead look. It was not despair, nothing so active as that. It was blackness…….the eating of beef and declaration of allegiance to Islam has been forced upon many thousands of as the price of their lives”

Miss Muriel Leister, member of a relief committee sent to Noakhali wrote on 6th November, 1946,(V.V. Nagarkar – Genesis – p 446)

“For the 13th day today, about 120 villages in Ramganj, Lakshmipur, Raipur, Begumganj and Senbag thanas (police stations) in Noakhali district with a Hindu population of 90,000 and nearby 70,000 villagers in Chandpur and Faridganj thanas in Tippera (Comilla) district remained besieged by hooligans. Death stares the people of these areas in their face and immediate rushing of supply to these areas with the help of military, who alone could do it, would save the lives of these people, most of whom have been without food for the last few days.” Amrita Bazar Patrika on 23/10/46



Every report gives gruesome accounts of the atrocities meted out to Hindus. Not only were they massacred and starved, they were forced to convert to Islam in the most cruel, inhuman ways possible.

“In an area of about 200 sq miles the inhabitants surrounded by riotous mobs, are being massacred, their houses being burnt, their womenfolk being forcibly carried away and thousands being subjected to forcible conversion. Thousands of hooligans attacked the villages, compelled them (Hindus) to slaughter their cattle and eat. All places of worship in affected villages have been desecrated. The District Magistrate and the Police Superintendent of Noakhali took no step to prevent it. The Statesman on 16/10/1946

Hindu women were raped by Muslims in large numbers.

“It has been known from authentic sources that at a place 400 and at another 300 women were mass raped by Muslims. To the Muslim crowd, violation of the honour of Hindu women meant the exposure of the most protected aspect of the Hindu identity and religion” Mr. Simpson, I.C.S in his letters

Sadly, even Bengali Hindus are woefully ignorant of the fate of their own ancestors, which they received at the hands of Muslims.

References:

Noakhali 1946

1946: Great Calcutta Killings & Noakhali Genocide – A Historical Study by Dinesh Chandra Sinha, Ashok Dasgupta

Noakhali genocide History Black day for Hindus

Wikipedia

Image:

Short report of Hindu Mahasabha relief activities during “Calcutta killing” and “Noakhali carnage”