East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which witnessed horrible massacres in Noakhali and Tipperah in October 1946, after the call for Direct Action, again saw the gory spectacle of massacres and butchery in 1950. In all the incidents of massacres, loot, arson and rape the police, paramilitary ansars, a government controlled Muslim militia and mobs actively participated. The attacks started on February 7, 1950 with the staffs of East Bengal Secretariat organizing a procession against the minorities. "The ‘Secretariat official mob' raided the offices of Janamat the only organ of the East Bengal minorities, the East Bengal Minorities Association, the Forward Block, the Socialist Party, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Scheduled Caste Federation. The general Muslim mob took the hint from the ‘official mob' and the riot broke out throughout the city".[1]  The riots which spread out from here took large parts of East Bengal under its grip resulting in massacres, loot, arson, of Hindus and Buddhists and rape and abduction of their womenfolk.

The killings were organized in Dacca and its surrounding villages, Barisal sub-division of Backerganj district, Sylhet, Chittagong town, Feni and its surrounding villages, Jessore and in the Santhal dominated areas of Rajshahi and other places. It is estimated that "in 1950, nearly half a million Hindus were slaughtered in East Pakistan and this led to another exodus of ½ million Hindus. The sufferings of the Hindus in 1950 are comparable only to the experiences of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Raping of Hindu mothers in the presence of the daughters, sons etc., cutting of male genitals, cutting of breasts of women, disemboweling pregnant mothers, gouging of eyes, and finally burning the whole family alive -these were commonest tortures inflicted". [2] The inhuman savagery and brutality combined with conversions and dispossession of non-Muslims from their property and livelihood amounted to complete social, psychological and economic breakdown.

A well known Hindu leader representing members of the Scheduled Castes, D.N. Mandal, mesmerised by the secular creed decided to stay behind in East Bengal on being offered a ministerial position. In East Pakistan he was the only Hindu cabinet minister. But within two years he became a helpless spectator to repetitive pogroms against the Hindu minority, especially the Namsudras. After witnessing the barbaric killings during Dacca riots of February, 1950, in which nearly ten thousands were killed and plight of  Scheduled Caste Hindus of  Mirpur and Tejgaon, two ravaged suburbs of Dacca, and atrocities committed in Narayanganj, Chittagong and Barisal he realised that there was a systematic plan to kill and convert the Hindus. He also took notice of the fact that in West Pakistan nearly one lakh members of Scheduled Castes were forcibly converted to Islam on pain of death and dishonour. Dozens of Scheduled Caste girls had been abducted and nearly 363 Hindu temples and Gurdwaras had been seized by Muslims and transformed into cobbler's shops, slaughter-houses and hotels. In sheer disgust D.N. Mandal resigned from his ministerial post in East Pakistan's cabinet. Later on he migrated to India. His resignation letter made public after he migrated to India gives a glimpse into the scale of ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Pakistan, especially in the eastern wing of that Islamic State.  The resignation letter of D.N. Mandal giving heart rending account of the persecution of Hindus is an eye-opener and explains the barbaric atrocities committed on Hindus in a fairly detailed manner. In his resignation letter he unequivocally denounced the government sponsored plan to either covert or kill the Hindus, as is evident from the following excerpt:

"In that grand setting of the Shariat, Muslims alone are rulers while Hindus and other minorities are jimmies who are entitled to protection at a price, and you know more than anybody else Mr. Prime Minister, what the price is. After anxious and prolonged struggle I have come to the conclusion that Pakistan is no place for Hindus to live in and their future is darkened by the ominous shadow of conversion or liquidation."