The Birth of

BANGLADESH
Liberation War 1971

Before The Event

March 1: General Yahya Khan calls off the session of National Council to be held
on March 3 in a radio address.
March 7: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - leader of Awami League party that had won a
landslide victory in East Pakistan in the Federal Elections in 1970, but never been
granted authority - announces to a jubilant crowd at the Dhaka Race Course ground,
"The struggle this time is the struggle for our emancipation! The struggle this time is
the struggle for independence!".
March 9: Workers of Chittagong port refuse to unload weapons from the ship
'Swat'.
March 10: Expatriate Bengali students demonstrate in front of the
United Nations Headquarters and calls for UN intervention to put an end to violence on
Bengali people.
March 16: Yahya Khan starts negotiation with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
March 19: Nearly 50 people die as Pakistan Army opens fire on demonstrators at
Jaydevpur.
March 24: Pakistan Army opens fire on Bengali demonstrators in Syedpur, Rangpur
and Chittagong. More than a thousand people are killed.

Operation Searchlight
On March 25, the Pakistan Army starts Operation Searchlight in Dhaka and
rest of the country, attacking general civilians, political activists, students,
and Bengali members of armed forces and police.
The prime targets became EPR Headquarter, Razarbag Police Line, Dhaka
University Campus, Hindu based old part of Dhaka and Dhanmondi-Ramna
zone.On The Pakistan Army launched a terror campaign calculated to
suppress the resistance movement and intimidate the Bengalis into
submission. Within hours a wholesale slaughter had commenced in Dhaka,
with the heaviest attacks concentrated on the University of Dhaka and the
Hindu areas of the old town.
Major General Rao Farman Ali with 57 Brigade under Brigedier Arbab was
responsible for operation in Dhaka city and its suburbs while Major General
Khadim Raja was given the responsibility of the rest of the province. Lieutenant
General Tikka Khan assumed the overall charge of the operation.

Background
Almost from the advent of independent Pakistan in 1947, frictions
developed between East and West Pakistan, which were separated by
more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory. East Pakistanis felt exploited by
the West Pakistan-dominated central government. Linguistic, cultural,
and ethnic differences also contributed to the estrangement of East from
West Pakistan. Bengalis strongly resisted attempts to impose Urdu as
the sole official language of Pakistan. Responding to these grievances,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1948 formed a students' organization called
the Chhatra League. In 1949, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and
some other Bengali leaders formed the East Pakistan Awami Muslim
League (AL), a party designed mainly to promote Bengali interests. This
party dropped the word Muslim from its name in 1955 and came to be
known as Awami League. Mujib became president of the Awami League
in 1966 and emerged as leader of the Bengali autonomy movement.

The War on Ground

The Bangladesh Forces was organized for the war in 1971 into three brigades in
11 sectors, with BDF HQ situated at 8 Theatre Road, Calcutta, West Bengal.
Bangladesh interim government of July 11, 1971 appointed Col. M A G Osmani as
Commander in Chief. Lt.Col Rab was appointed as Chief of Bangladesh Army
Staff. In this meeting, Bangladesh was divided into Eleven Sectors under Sector
Commanders.
Sector Commanders directed the guerrilla warfare. For better efficiency in military
operations each of the sectors were divided into a number of sub-sectors. On
November 21, 1971 Bangladesh Forces under Indian Army formed an allied
command in which India took surrender of Pakistani forces on December 16, 1971.
The table below provides a list of the sectors along with the area under each of
them, the names of the sector commanders and the names of sub-sectors.
The 10th Sector was directly placed under Commander in Chief and included the
Naval Commandos and C-in-Cs special force.These commandos were later
absorbed into the Bangladesh Navy. Sector Commanders directed the guerrilla
warfare against West Pakistani forces.

The People's Army

A column of Mukti Bahini native Bengali "freedom fighters",
many trained and armed in India walk through East Pakistan's
paddy fields.

Exodus
Nearly ten million East Pakistanis fled west across the border to
India in the early months of the 1971 war, fleeing famine and
the ravages of the Pakistani army.

The Nameless Dead

By some estimates, more than 1 million Bengalis, Hindus and
suspected dissidents were rounded up and systematically murdered by
Pakistan's army. To this day, many mass graves have yet to be
uncovered.

End of Arms
Pakistan's Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, right, signs terms of surrender with Indian
Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora on December 16, 1971, which paves the way for
the founding of the independent nation of Bangladesh.

Aftermath
of
the
War
On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, CO of Pakistan Army forces located in
East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. At the time of surrender only a few
countries had provided diplomatic recognition to the new nation. Over 93,000 Pakistani
troops surrendered to the Indian forces & Bangladesh Liberation forces, making it the
largest surrender since World War II. Bangladesh sought admission in the UN with most
voting in its favour, but China vetoed this as Pakistan was its key ally.The United States,
also a key ally of Pakistan, was one of the last nations to accord Bangladesh
recognition. To ensure a smooth transition, in 1972 the Simla Agreement was signed
between India and Pakistan. The treaty ensured that Pakistan recognised the
independence of Bangladesh in exchange for the return of the Pakistani PoWs. India
treated all the PoWs in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention, rule 1925.It
released more than 93,000 Pakistani PoWs in five months. Further, as a gesture of
goodwill, nearly 200 soldiers who were sought for war crimes by Bengalis were also
pardoned by India. The accord also gave back more than 13,000km 2 (5,019sqmi) of
land that Indian troops had seized in West Pakistan during the war, though India
retained a few strategic areas; most notably Kargil (which would in turn again be the
focal point for a war between the two nations in 1999).

Atrocities of the War

During the war there were widespread killings and other atrocities including the
displacement of civilians in Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time) and widespread
violations of human rights began with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971.
Bangladeshi authorities claimed that three million people were killed
A large section of the intellectual community
of Bangladesh were murdered, mostly by the
Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces, at the
instruction of the Pakistani Army. Just two
days before the surrender, on 14 December
1971, Pakistan Army and Razakar militia
(local collaborators) picked up at least 100
physicians,
professors,
writers
and
engineers in Dacca, and murdered them,
leaving the dead bodies in a mass grave.

The Joy of Independence

Retribution
Men who were suspected of having collaborated with Pakistan's
reign of terror in the East are executed in front of the public.

The Messiah
Bangladesh's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (holding
kerchief), weeps upon his entrance into a liberated Dhaka. He would
be installed as president, but assassinated by elements within the
military four years later, plunging Bangladesh into a legacy of
turbulent politics it has yet to move beyond.

War Heros