After getting the anticipated success in Direct Action Day, an advertisement was published by the Muslim League titled- 'Let Pakistan speak!' In this advertisement, Muslim League leader S. M. Osman said- 'The first open war between Islam and 'Kafirs' started in the month of Ramadan and Muslims were allowed to engage in Jihad. Islam got a grand victory. According to the will of God, the All India Muslim League chose this holy month to start jihad with the aim of achieving Pakistan. We Muslims have had the crown and we have ruled. Don't lose heart, get ready and take out the sword. O Kafir, your end is not far away, you will surely be annihilated.'
Suhrawardi's Behavior
Bengal Chief Minister Suhrawardy, leading the riots, gave the slogan - 'Lad kar lenge Pakistan.' He declared 16 August a holiday in government offices so that Muslim League workers could openly commit murders. Sir Frederick Burroughs, the governor of Bengal, could not do anything to stop these riots. Bengal and Bihar were bathed in the blood of Hindus.
The then Inspector General of Police of Bengal S. Yes. Taylor in his 'S. Yes. Taylor Papers' It is written in- 'How did the Chief Minister of Muslim League, Suhrawardy behave at that time? Suhrawardy's behavior was condemnable. The Army Area Commander and the Chief Minister visited Calcutta at the height of the disturbances. The commander of the army said that it is unusual, Hindus and Muslims live and work happily together in the army. Suhrawardy said without hiding his feelings, we will end all that soon.'
In this way about ten thousand lives were taken in Calcutta in direct action.
Behavior of other Muslim League leaders
Punjab's prominent Muslim League leader Mamdaut asked the League workers to use all the means of an agitated country- 'We have broken all our shackles. We are now firmly committed to the freedom of Islam in India.'
Sindh's Law and Order Minister Ghulam Ali Khan said- 'Everyone who opposes Muslims in relation to Pakistan will be destroyed and ravaged.
The Statesman of Calcutta scrutinized the programs of direct action very meticulously. He wrote- 'Firoz Khan Noon in Bombay participated in a flag hoisting ceremony for the creation of Pakistan and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was invited along with all his supporters to embrace Islam. Addressing a gathering of Muslims at Jama Masjid in Delhi on 16 August, Qazi Muhammad Isa asked the Muslims to consider themselves soldiers of Pakistan and be ready for the final struggle. All these examples show how the Muslim League was determined to create communal division by promoting Hindu-Muslim riots throughout northern India.'
Violence in Noakhali
What happened in Calcutta in August 1946 did not end there. Incidents of murder, arson and looting were increasing day by day in Dhaka, the second largest city of Bengal. But the worst was in October 1946 in two districts of Muslim-majority East-Bengal, Noakhali and Tippra. Organized goons were making the helpless Hindu neighbors the victims of their barbarism through widespread economic boycott, looting, arson, rape and murder.
When armed troops reached Feni in Noakhali district, which was most affected by the communal frenzy, on 9 October 1946, the communal orgy started in Ramganj police station in Noakhali district. There, apart from looting, arson, rape and murder, Hindus were forced to convert to Islam. This well-planned vandalism was not led by the Muslim League, but by Gulab Sarwar, a former MLA defeated in the 1946 elections.
About 5000 Hindus were killed in the Noakhali and Tripura districts of East Bengal. Attempts were made to convert a large number of Hindus into Muslims in Noakhali and women were raped. In Noakhali, 7.5 lakh Hindus had to live in refugee camps for several months. In response to these riots, Hindus attacked Muslims in Bihar. According to government sources, around 4,300 Muslims were killed in Bihar.
250 Muslims were killed in the United Provinces. Like Eastern India, in Western India too, there was terrible violence against Hindus and Sikhs in direct action. The number of Sikhs and Hindus who died in Punjab reached 3,000. During the riots, property worth crores of rupees of Sikhs and Hindus was looted or destroyed in vandalism and arson.
Collins and Lapier have written- 'Noakhali was burnt to ashes. Where Gandhiji set out on his atonement journey. The orgy of the Quami riots took place in Bihar. Bombay also turned into a city of fire on the west coast.
……. These events greatly influenced the history of the country. The Muslims have in fact proved that they had the guts to turn the threatening reality they had been giving for years to kill the whole country with blood if they did not get their Pakistan. The horrific scene with which Gandhiji's hair shuddered at the very imagination of the scene suddenly turned into a bare reality - civil war!'
Violence in other cities of Bengal and Bihar
There were also casualties in Sylhet and Dhaka. The vengeance was fierce and far more terrifying than the original riot. The people in Noakhali and Tripura were agitated by the policy of three for one. In both these districts, Muslims were in majority and Hindus were in minority. In Noakhali their ratio was 18 lakhs and 4 lakhs. The number of casualties was not high in view of the sheer magnitude of crime in these two districts of East Bengal.
Women exports, forced marriages, forced conversions, houses being set on fire, mass attacks on them and the victims of these attacks by famous families had spread distrust in East Bengal that it was more than the mass deaths in the famine three years earlier. was more severe. How many Hindus from East Bengal fled to Bihar and stories of atrocities spread there. Due to this the Bihari people went crazy for vengeance.
At the end of October 1946, the barbaric devastation of communal destruction started in Bihar. Bihar was already sitting on a pile of gunpowder. The news of Calcutta, Dhaka and Noakhali acted as spoilers. The victims of communal violence in Bihar were mainly the Muslim minority there. When the League decided to join the Interim Government, it was actually crowned with the blood flowing in the communal frenzy.