It seemed …that some modern Nadir Shah had come upon Calcutta and had given up the city to rapine, plunder and pillage. Sir, each time I tried to get… - A.K. Fazlul Huq

Police officer would not listen, the Control Office would not control, the Government Houses would not listen, Sir, in these circumstances the Great Killing went on and it is undisputed that this would never have happened if the police and the military had taken strong measures on Friday, the 16th, when the trouble began. It would have been nipped in the bud that very day, and, therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that although the police may not be responsible for the origin of disturbances, they are directly responsible for the great loss of human life, and if an impartial enquiry is held and these officers can be spotted, my opinion is that they deserve to be hanged, drawn and quartered publicly, on charges of murder and abetment of murder…’

Sir, during the dark days or nights of the Great Killing, I watched events from the ‘point of view of a member of the Opposition. The news that came to me trickling down from various sources was unfavourable to the Ministers in power. I was very deeply impressed with the fact that during the whole of these disturbances the machinery of Government had completely broken down in this city. Sit, I pondered deeply over the situation, and if I have risen to say a few words on these motions I wish to tell my comrades in the Assembly what | feel very strongly and which T think ought to be raised before the people of Bengal, if Bengal is to be saved at all from utter extermination. There have been Hindu-Muslim quarrels in the past all over India. In many of these quarrels, when cases had been started, I had the privilege of defending the Muslim accused almost all over the country. But, Sir, 1 have never in the whole course of my life seen anything like the purcly fiendish fury with which both Hindus and Muslims have murdered not merely men or women but even small children. 1 do not know to satisfy what impulse—human or devilish—which seems to have possessed the Bengalees for those fateful days and nights that my countrymen indulged.

I have reached the final stage of my life. I have no more desires. If I can begin the work of removing this false wall between the two Bengals, I will consider myself blessed.