There was no edition of the newspaper on Nov 28, 1970 on account of Jumatul Wida. The following excerpt is from the previous day’s edition.

DACCA: The Awami League President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said here today [Nov 26] that polls should be on schedule while it was postponed in the affected areas till rehabilitation of survivors of the November 13 calamity. In about eight [National Assembly] constituencies … [in] the battered zone in East Pakistan, elections could take place after conditions improved, he observed.

The Sheikh, who was addressing a huge Press conference at Hotel Shahbagh today after his return from the cyclone-hit areas on Wednesday narrated eyewitness account of the devastation. The conference, which was attended by about 100 foreign newsmen including television and other cameramen, was the largest ever Press conference at Dacca addressed by a political leader of East Pakistan.

Giving out his estimate in number of dead the Sheikh said: “It would be almost a million while according to others it exceeded one million. … I cannot find words adequate to describe the holocaust which the cyclone and tidal bore have left in their trail nor can I adequately convey in words the suffering and the misery of those who have survived….”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020