Port City International University

Course Code : HIST 101

Course Title : History of the Emergence of
Bangladesh
Name Of Assignment : Liberation War of
Bangladesh
Submitted to
Name of Lecture : Ataus Samad Raju
Department : Natural Science
Port City International University
Group Members :
• MD. Saimun Rahman - (BBA 02107716)
• Nayan Talukder - (BBA 02107717)
• Shahin Akter Tamanna - (BBA 02107718)
• Ishat Bin Alam - (BBA 02107719)
• Miskat Jahan Samia - (BBA 02107720)

Program : Bachelor of Business Admiration

(BBA)
Batch : 21 (D)
Date of Submission : 19 - 5 - 2020
 INDEX
• Introduction
• Background
• Language Controversy
• Disparities
• Ideological and Cultural Differences
• Political Differences
• Response to the 1970 Cyclone
• Operation Searchlight
• Declaration of Independence
• Liberation War
• Indian Involvement
• Surrender and Aftermath
• Atrocities
• Foreign Reaction
• Reference
 Liberation War of Bangladesh
Introduction :
The Bangladesh Liberation War also known as the
Bangladesh War of Independence , or simply the
Liberation War in Bangladesh, was a revolution and
armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali
nationalist and self-determination movement in
what was then East Pakistan during the 1971
Bangladesh genocide. It resulted in the
independence of the People's Republic of
Bangladesh . The war began after the Pakistani
military junta based in West Pakistan launched
Operation Searchlight against the people of East
Pakistan on the night of 25 March 1971. It pursued
the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali
civilians, students, intelligentsia , religious
minorities and armed personnel. The junta annulled
the results of the 1970 elections and arrested Prime
minister-designate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman . The
war ended on 16 December 1971 after West
Pakistan surrendered.
Rural and urban areas across East Pakistan saw
extensive military operations and air strikes to
suppress the tide of civil disobedience that formed
following the 1970 election stalemate. The Pakistan
Army , which had the backing of Islamists, created
radical religious militias – the Razakars , Al-Badr and
Al-Shams - to assist it during raids on the local
populace. Urdu-speaking Biharis in Bangladesh
(ethnic minority) were also in support of Pakistani
military. Members of the Pakistani military and
supporting militias engaged in mass murder,
deportation and genocidal rape . The capital Dhaka
was the scene of numerous massacres, including
Operation Searchlight and the Dhaka University
massacre . An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees
fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were
internally displaced. Sectarian violence broke out
between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking immigrants.
An academic consensus prevails that the atrocities
committed by the Pakistani military were a
genocide.
The Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence was
proclaimed from Chittagong by members of the
Mukti Bahini – the national liberation army formed
by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians. The
East Bengal Regiment and the East Pakistan Rifles
played a crucial role in the resistance. Led by
General M. A. G. Osmani and eleven sector
commanders , the Bangladesh Forces waged a mass
guerrilla war against the Pakistani military. They
liberated numerous towns and cities in the initial
months of the conflict. The Pakistan Army regained
momentum in the monsoon . Bengali guerrillas
carried out widespread sabotage, including
Operation Jackpot against the Pakistan Navy. The
nascent Bangladesh Air Force flew sorties against
Pakistani military bases. By November, the
Bangladesh forces restricted the Pakistani military
to its barracks during the night. They secured
control of most parts of the countryside. The
Provisional Government of Bangladesh was formed
on 17 April 1971 in Mujibnagar and moved to
Calcutta as a government in exile . Bengali members
of the Pakistani civil, military and diplomatic corps
defected to the Bangladeshi provisional
government. Thousands of Bengali families were
interned in West Pakistan, from where many
escaped to Afghanistan . Bengali cultural activists
operated the clandestine Free Bengal Radio Station.
The plight of millions of war-ravaged Bengali
civilians caused worldwide outrage and alarm. India,
which was led by Indira Gandhi , provided
substantial diplomatic, economic and military
support to Bangladeshi nationalists. British, Indian
and American musicians organised the world's first
benefit concert in New York City to support the
Bangladeshi people. Senator Ted Kennedy in the
United States led a congressional campaign for an
end to Pakistani military persecution; while U.S.
diplomats in East Pakistan strongly dissented with
the Nixon administration 's close ties to the
Pakistani military dictator Yahya Khan .
India joined the war on 3 December 1971, after
Pakistan launched preemptive air strikes on North
India. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War witnessed
engagements on two war fronts. With air
supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre and the
rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Bangladesh
and India, Pakistan surrendered in Dacca on 16
December 1971.
The war changed the geopolitical landscape of
South Asia , with the emergence of Bangladesh as
the seventh-most populous country in the world.
Due to complex regional alliances, the war was a
major episode in Cold War tensions involving the
United States , the Soviet Union and the People's
Republic of China. The majority of member states in
the United Nations recognised Bangladesh as a
sovereign nation in 1972.
Background :
Prior to the Partition of British India, the Lahore
Resolution initially envisaged separate Muslim -
majority states in the eastern and northwestern
zones of British India. A proposal for an
independent United Bengal was mooted by Prime
Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1946, but
was opposed by the colonial authorities. The East
Pakistan Renaissance Society advocated the
creation of a sovereign state in eastern British India.
Eventually, political negotiations led, in August
1947, to the official birth of two states , Pakistan
and India, giving presumably permanent homes for
Muslims and Hindus respectively following the
departure of the British. The Dominion of Pakistan
comprised two geographically and culturally
separate areas to the east and the west with India
in between. The western zone was popularly (and
for a period, also officially) termed West Pakistan
and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was
initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan.
Although the population of the two zones was close
to equal, political power was concentrated in West
Pakistan and it was widely perceived that East
Pakistan was being exploited economically, leading
to many grievances. Administration of two
discontinuous territories was also seen as a
challenge. On 25 March 1971, after an election won
by an East Pakistani political party (the Awami
League ) was ignored by the ruling (West Pakistani)
establishment, rising political discontent and
cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by
brutal suppressive force from the ruling elite of the
West Pakistan establishment, in what came to be
termed Operation Searchlight . The violent
crackdown by the Pakistan Army led to Awami
League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring
East Pakistan's independence as the state of
Bangladesh on 26 March 1971. Most Bengalis threw
their support behind this move although Islamists
and Biharis opposed this and sided with the
Pakistan Army instead. Pakistani President Agha
Muhammad Yahya Khan ordered the Pakistani
military to restore the Pakistani government's
authority, beginning the civil war. The war led to a
sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about
10 million) flooding into the eastern provinces of
India. Facing a mounting humanitarian and
economic crisis, India started actively aiding and
organising the Bangladeshi resistance army known
as the Mukti Bahini .

Language controversy :
In 1948, Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah
declared that " Urdu, and only Urdu" would be the
federal language of Pakistan. However, Urdu was
historically prevalent only in the north, central, and
western region of the subcontinent ; whereas in
East Bengal, the native language was Bengali , one
of the two most easterly branches of the Indo-
European languages . The Bengali-speaking people
of Pakistan constituted over 30% of the country's
population. The government stand was widely
viewed as an attempt to suppress the culture of the
eastern wing. The people of East Bengal demanded
that their language be given federal status
alongside Urdu and English. The Language
Movement began in 1948, as civil society protested
the removal of the Bengali script from currency and
stamps, which were in place since the British Raj .
The movement reached its climax in 1952, when on
21 February, the police fired on protesting students
and civilians, causing several deaths. The day is
revered in Bangladesh as the Language Movement
Day . Later, in memory of the deaths in 1952,
UNESCO declared 21 February as International
Mother Language Day in November 1999.

Disparities :
Although East Pakistan had a larger population,
West Pakistan dominated the divided country
politically and received more money from the
common budget.
East Pakistan was already economically
disadvantaged at the time of Pakistan's creation yet
this economic disparity only increased under
Pakistani rule. Factors included not only the
deliberate state discrimination in developmental
policies but also the fact that the presence of the
country's capital and more immigrant businessmen
in the Western wing directed greater government
allocations there. Due to low numbers of native
businessmen in East Pakistan, substantial labour
unrest and a tense political environment, there
were also much lower foreign investments in the
eastern wing. The Pakistani state's economic
outlook was geared towards urban industry, which
was not compatible with East Pakistan's mainly
agrarian economy.
Bengalis were under-represented in the Pakistan
military. Officers of Bengali origin in the different
wings of the armed forces made up just 5% of
overall force by 1965; of these, only a few were in
command positions, with the majority in technical
or administrative posts. West Pakistanis believed
that Bengalis were not "martially inclined" unlike
Pashtuns and Punjabis ; the " Martial races " notion
was dismissed as ridiculous and humiliating by
Bengalis. Moreover, despite huge defence
spending, East Pakistan received none of the
benefits, such as contracts, purchasing and military
support jobs. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over
Kashmir also highlighted the sense of military
insecurity among Bengalis, as only an under-
strength infantry division and 15 combat aircraft
without tank support were in East Pakistan to
thwart any Indian retaliations during the conflict.

Ideological and cultural differences :

In 1947 the Bengali Muslims had identified
themselves with Pakistan's Islamic project but by
the 1970s the people of East Pakistan had given
priority to their Bengali ethnicity over their religious
identity, desiring a society in accordance with
Western principles such as secularism, democracy
and socialism. Many Bengali Muslims strongly
objected to the Islamist paradigm imposed by the
Pakistani state. Most members of West Pakistan's
ruling elite also belonged to a liberal society, yet
understood a common faith as the mobilising factor
behind Pakistan's creation and the subsuming of
Pakistan's multiple identities into one. West
Pakistanis were substantially more supportive than
East Pakistanis of an Islamic state, a tendency which
persisted after 1971.
Cultural and linguistic differences between the two
wings outweighed any religious unity. The Bengalis
took great pride in their culture and language
which, with its Bengali script and vocabulary , was
unacceptable to the West Pakistani elite, who
believed that it possessed considerable Hindu
cultural influences. West Pakistanis, in an attempt
to 'Islamise" the East, wanted the Bengalis to adopt
Urdu. The events of the language movement
brought about a sentiment among Bengalis in
favour of discarding Pakistan's communalism in
favour of secular politics. The Awami League began
propagating its secular message through its
newspaper to the Bengali readership.
The Awami League's emphasis on secularism
differentiated it from the Muslim League. In 1971,
the Bangladeshi liberation struggle against Pakistan
was led by secular leaders and secularists hailed the
Bangladeshi victory as the triumph of secular
Bengali nationalism over religion-centred Pakistani
nationalism. While Pakistan's government strives
for an Islamic state, Bangladesh was established
secular. After the liberation victory, the Awami
League attempted to build a secular order and the
pro-Pakistan Islamist parties were barred from
political participation. The majority of East Pakistani
ulama had either remained neutral or supported
the Pakistani state, since they felt that the break-up
of Pakistan would be detrimental for Islam.
Political differences
Although East Pakistan accounted for a slight
majority of the country's population, political power
remained in the hands of West Pakistanis. Since a
straightforward system of representation based on
population would have concentrated political
power in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani
establishment came up with the " One Unit "
scheme, where all of West Pakistan was considered
one province. This was solely to counterbalance the
East wing's votes.
After the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan ,
Pakistan's first prime minister, in 1951, political
power began to devolve to the new President of
Pakistan , which replaced the office of Governor
General when Pakistan became a republic, and,
eventually, the military. The nominal elected chief
executive, the Prime Minister, was frequently
sacked by the establishment, acting through the
President.
The East Pakistanis observed that the West
Pakistani establishment would swiftly depose any
East Pakistanis elected Prime Minister of Pakistan,
such as Khawaja Nazimuddin , Mohammad Ali
Bogra , or Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy . Their
suspicions were further aggravated by the military
dictatorships of Ayub Khan (27 October 1958 – 25
March 1969) and Yahya Khan (25 March 1969 – 20
December 1971), both West Pakistanis. The
situation reached a climax in 1970, when the
Bangladesh Awami League , the largest East
Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman , won a landslide victory in the national
elections. The party won 167 of the 169 seats
allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the
313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the
Awami League the constitutional right to form a
government. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (a former
Foreign Minister), the leader of the Pakistan
People's Party , refused to allow Rahman to become
the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Instead, he
proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers,
one for each wing. The proposal elicited outrage in
the east wing, already chafing under the other
constitutional innovation, the "One Unit scheme".
Bhutto also refused to accept Rahman's Six Points .
On 3 March 1971, the two leaders of the two wings
along with the President General Yahya Khan met in
Dacca to decide the fate of the country. After their
discussions yielded no satisfactory results, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman called for a nationwide strike.
Bhutto feared a civil war, therefore, he sent his
trusted companion, Mubashir Hassan . A message
was conveyed, and Rahman decided to meet
Bhutto. Upon his arrival, Rahman met with Bhutto
and both agreed to form a coalition government
with Rahman as Premier and Bhutto as President.
However, the military was unaware of these
developments, and Bhutto increased his pressure
on Rahman to reach a decision.
On 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (soon to
be the prime minister) delivered a speech at the
Racecourse Ground (now called the Suhrawardy
Udyan). In this speech he mentioned a further
four-point condition to consider at the National
Assembly Meeting on 25 March:
• The immediate lifting of martial law .
• Immediate withdrawal of all military personnel
to their barracks.
• An inquiry into the loss of life.
• Immediate transfer of power to the elected
representative of the people before the
assembly meeting 25 March.
He urged his people to turn every house into a fort
of resistance. He closed his speech saying, "Our
struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our
independence." This speech is considered [ by
whom? ] the main event that inspired the nation to
fight for its independence. General Tikka Khan was
flown into Dacca to become Governor of East
Bengal. East-Pakistani judges, including Justice
Siddique, refused to swear him in.
Between 10 and 13 March, Pakistan International
Airlines cancelled all their international routes to
urgently fly "government passengers" to Dacca.
These "government passengers" were almost all
Pakistani soldiers in civilian dress. MV Swat , a ship
of the Pakistan Navy carrying ammunition and
soldiers, was harboured in Chittagong Port, but the
Bengali workers and sailors at the port refused to
unload the ship. A unit of East Pakistan Rifles
refused to obey commands to fire on the Bengali
demonstrators, beginning a mutiny among the
Bengali soldiers.

Response to the 1970 cyclone

The 1970 Bhola cyclone made landfall on the East
Pakistan coastline during the evening of 12
November, around the same time as a local high
tide , killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000
people. Though the exact death toll is not known, it
is considered [ by whom? ] the deadliest tropical
cyclone on record. A week after the landfall,
President Khan conceded that his government had
made "slips" and "mistakes" in its handling of the
relief efforts due to a lack of understanding of the
magnitude of the disaster.
A statement released by eleven political leaders in
East Pakistan ten days after the cyclone hit charged
the government with "gross neglect, callous and
utter indifference". They also accused the president
of playing down the magnitude of the problem in
news coverage. On 19 November, students held a
march in Dacca protesting the slowness of the
government's response. Abdul Hamid Khan
Bhashani addressed a rally of 50,000 people on 24
November, where he accused the president of
inefficiency and demanded his resignation.
As the conflict between East and West Pakistan
developed in March, the Dacca offices of the two
government organisations directly involved in relief
efforts were closed for at least two weeks, first by a
general strike and then by a ban on government
work in East Pakistan by the Awami League . With
this increase in tension, foreign personnel were
evacuated over fears of violence. Relief work
continued in the field, but long-term planning was
curtailed. This conflict widened into the Bangladesh
Liberation War in December and concluded with the
creation of Bangladesh. This was one of the first
times that a natural event helped trigger a civil war.

Operation Searchlight :
A planned military pacification carried out by the
Pakistan Army – codenamed Operation Searchlight
– started on 25 March 1971 to curb the Bengali
independence movement by taking control of the
major cities on 26 March, and then eliminating all
opposition, political or military, within one month.
The Pakistani state claimed to justify starting
Operation Searchlight on the basis of anti-Bihari
violence by Bengalis in early March.
Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign
journalists were systematically deported from East
Pakistan.
The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended
with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands
in mid-May. The operation also began the 1971
Bangladesh genocide. These systematic killings
served only to enrage the Bengalis, which ultimately
resulted in the secession of East Pakistan later in
the same year. Bangladeshi media and reference
books in English have published casualty figures
which vary greatly, from 5,000–35,000 in Dacca,
and 200,000–3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole,
although independent researchers, including the
British Medical Journal , have put forward the figure
ranging from between 125,000 and 505,000.
American political scientist Rudolph Rummel puts
total deaths at 1.5 million. The atrocities have been
referred to as acts of genocide.
According to the Asia Times ,
• At a meeting of the military top brass, Yahya
Khan declared: "Kill 3 million of them and the
rest will eat out of our hands." Accordingly, on
the night of 25 March, the Pakistani Army
 launchedOperation Searchlight to "crush"
Bengali resistance in which Bengali members of
military services were disarmed and killed,
students and the intelligentsia systematically
liquidated and able-bodied Bengali males just
picked up and gunned down.
Although the violence focused on the provincial
capital, Dacca, it also affected all parts of East
Pakistan. Residential halls of the University of Dacca
were particularly targeted. The only Hindu
residential hall – Jagannath Hall – was destroyed by
the Pakistani armed forces, and an estimated 600 to
700 of its residents were murdered. The Pakistani
army denied any cold blooded killings at the
university, though the Hamoodur Rahman
Commission in Pakistan concluded that
overwhelming force was used at the university. This
fact, and the massacre at Jagannath Hall and nearby
student dormitories of Dacca University, are
corroborated by a videotape secretly filmed by
Professor Nurul Ula of the East Pakistan University
of Engineering and Technology , whose residence
was directly opposite the student dormitories.
The scale of the atrocities was first made clear in
the West when Anthony Mascarenhas , a Pakistani
journalist who had been sent to the province by the
military authorities to write a story favourable to
Pakistan's actions, instead fled to the United
Kingdom and, on 13 June 1971, published an article
in The Sunday Times describing the systematic
killings by the military. The BBC wrote: "There is
little doubt that Mascarenhas' reportage played its
part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion
against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a
decisive role", with Indian Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi herself stating that Mascarenhas' article has
led her "to prepare the ground for India's armed
intervention".
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested by the
Pakistani Army. Yahya Khan appointed Brigadier
(later General)
Rahimuddin Khan to preside over a special tribunal
prosecuting Rahman with multiple charges. The
tribunal's sentence was never made public, but
Yahya caused the verdict to be held in abeyance in
any case. Other Awami League leaders were
arrested as well, while a few fled Dacca to avoid
arrest. The Awami League was banned by General
Yahya Khan.

Declaration of independence :
The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on
25 March 1971 proved the last straw to the efforts
to negotiate a settlement. Following these
incidents, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official
declaration that read:
• Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and
independent country. On Thursday night, West
Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the
police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR
headquarters at Pilkhana in Dacca. Many
 innocent and unarmed have been killed in
Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh.
Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the
one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on
the other, are going on. The Bengalis are
fighting the enemy with great courage for an
independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in
our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla [May
Bangladesh be victorious].
Sheikh Mujib also called upon the people to resist
the occupation forces through a radio message.
Rahman was arrested on the night of 25–26 March
1971 at about 1:30 am (as per Radio Pakistan's
news on 29 March 1971).
A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman's declaration reached some students in
Chittagong . The message was translated to Bengali
by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure
permission from higher authorities to broadcast the
message from the nearby Agrabad Station of
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation . However, the
message was read several times by the independent
Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro Radio established by
some rebel Bangali Radio workers in Kalurghat.
Major Ziaur Rahman was requested to provide
security of the station and he also read the
Declaration on 27 March 1971. Major Ziaur Rahman
broadcast announcement of the declaration of
independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
• This is Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. I, Major
Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu
Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that
Independent People's Republic of Bangladesh
has been established. At his direction, I have
taken the command as the temporary Head of
the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, I call upon all Bengalees to rise against
the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall
fight to the last to free our motherland. Victory
is, by the Grace of Allah, ours. Joy Bangla.
The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission
capability was limited, but the message was picked
up by a Japanese ship in the Bay of Bengal. It was
then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by
the British Broadcasting Corporation .
M. A. Hannan , an Awami League leader from
Chittagong, is said to have made the first
announcement of the declaration of independence
over the radio on 26 March 1971.
26 March 1971 is considered the official
Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name
Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. In July 1971,
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly referred
to the former East Pakistan as Bangladesh. Some
Pakistani and Indian officials continued to use the
name "East Pakistan" until 16 December 1971.
Liberation War :

March–June :
At first, resistance was spontaneous and
disorganised, and was not expected to be
prolonged. However, when the Pakistani Army
cracked down upon the population, resistance
grew. The Mukti Bahini became increasingly active.
The Pakistani military sought to quell them, but
increasing numbers of Bengali soldiers defected to
this underground "Bangladesh army". These Bengali
units slowly merged into the Mukti Bahini and
bolstered their weaponry with supplies from India.
Pakistan responded by airlifting in two infantry
divisions and reorganising their forces. They also
raised paramilitary forces of Razakars, Al-Badrs and
Al-Shams (who were mostly members of the
Muslim League and other Islamist groups), as well
as other Bengalis who opposed independence, and
Bihari Muslims who had settled during the time of
partition .
On 17 April 1971, a provisional government was
formed in Meherpur District in western Bangladesh
bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who
was in prison in Pakistan, as President, Syed Nazrul
Islam as Acting President, Tajuddin Ahmad as Prime
Minister, and General Muhammad Ataul Ghani
Osmani as Commander-in-Chief, Bangladesh Forces.
As fighting grew between the occupation army and
the Bengali Mukti Bahini, an estimated 10 million
Bengalis sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam
and West Bengal.

June–September :
Bangladesh forces command was set up on 11 July,
with Col. M. A. G. Osmani as commander-in-chief
(C-in-C) with the status of Cabinet Minister, Lt. Col.,
Abdur Rabb as chief of Staff (COS), Group Captain A
K Khandker as Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) and
Major A R Chowdhury as Assistant Chief of Staff
(ACOS).
General Osmani had differences of opinion with the
Indian leadership regarding the role of the Mukti
Bahini in the conflict. Indian leadership initially
envisioned Bengali forces to be trained into a small
elite guerrilla force of 8,000 members, led by the
surviving East Bengal Regiment soldiers operating in
small cells around Bangladesh to facilitate the
eventual Indian intervention, but with the
Bangladesh government in exile, General Osmani
favoured a different strategy.
Bangladesh was divided into eleven sectors in July,
each with a commander chosen from defected
officers of the Pakistani army who joined the Mukti
Bahini to conduct guerrilla operations and train
fighters. Most of their training camps were situated
near the border area and were operated with
assistance from India. The 10th Sector was directly
placed under the Commander in Chief (C-in-C)
General M. A. G. Osmani and included the Naval
Commandos and C-in-C's special force. Three
brigades (11 Battalions) were raised for
conventional warfare; a large guerrilla force
(estimated at 100,000) was trained.
Three brigades (eight infantry battalions and three
artillery batteries) were put into action between
July and September. During June and July, Mukti
Bahini had regrouped across the border with Indian
aid through Operation Jackpot and began sending
2000–5000 guerrillas across the border, the so-
called Monsoon Offensive, which for various
reasons (lack of proper training, supply shortage,
lack of a proper support network inside Bangladesh)
failed to achieve its objectives. Bengali regular
forces also attacked BOPs in Mymensingh , Comilla
and Sylhet , but the results were mixed. Pakistani
authorities concluded that they had successfully
contained the Monsoon Offensive, which proved a
near-accurate observation.
Guerrilla operations, which slackened during the
training phase, picked up after August. Economic
and military targets in Dacca were attacked. The
major success story was Operation Jackpot, in which
naval commandos mined and blew up berthed ships
in Chittagong, Mongla , Narayanganj and Chandpur
on 15 August 1971.

October–December :
Bangladeshi conventional forces attacked border
outposts. Kamalpur, Belonia and the Battle of Boyra
are a few examples. 90 out of 370 BOPs fell to
Bengali forces. Guerrilla attacks intensified, as did
Pakistani and Razakar reprisals on civilian
populations. Pakistani forces were reinforced by
eight battalions from West Pakistan. The
Bangladeshi independence fighters even managed
to temporarily capture airstrips at Lalmonirhat and
Shalutikar . Both of these were used for flying in
supplies and arms from India. Pakistan sent another
five battalions from West Pakistan as
reinforcements.
Indian Involvement :
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had concluded
that instead of taking in millions of refugees, India
would be economically better off going to war
against Pakistan. As early as 28 April 1971, the
Indian Cabinet had asked General Manekshaw
(Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee) to "Go
into East Pakistan". Hostile relations in the past
between India and Pakistan added to India's
decision to intervene in Pakistan's civil war. As a
result, the Indian government decided to support
the creation of a separate state for ethnic Bengalis
by supporting the Mukti Bahini . RAW helped to
organise, train and arm these insurgents.
Consequently, the Mukti Bahini succeeded in
harassing Pakistani military in East Pakistan, thus
creating conditions conducive for a full-scale Indian
military intervention in early December.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched a pre-
emptive strike on Indian Air Force bases on 3
December 1971. The attack was modelled on the
Israeli Air Force 's Operation Focus during the Six-
Day War , and intended to neutralise the Indian Air
Force planes on the ground. The strike was seen by
India as an open act of unprovoked aggression,
which marked the official start of the Indo-Pakistani
War . As a response to the attack, both India and
Pakistan formally acknowledged the "existence of a
state of war between the two countries" even
though neither government had formally issued a
declaration of war .
Three Indian corps were involved in the liberation
of East Pakistan. They were supported by nearly
three brigades of Mukti Bahini fighting alongside
them, and many more who were fighting
irregularly. That was far superior to the Pakistani
army of three divisions . The Indians quickly overran
the country, selectively engaging or bypassing
heavily defended strongholds. Pakistani forces were
unable to effectively counter the Indian attack, as
they had been deployed in small units around the
border to counter the guerrilla attacks by the Mukti
Bahini. Unable to defend Dacca, the Pakistanis
surrendered on 16 December 1971.

Air and naval war

The Indian Air Force carried out several sorties
against Pakistan, and within a week, IAF aircraft
dominated the skies of East Pakistan. It achieved
near-total air supremacy by the end of the first
week, as the entire Pakistani air contingent in the
east, PAF No.14 Squadron, was grounded because
of Indian and Bangladesh airstrikes at Tejgaon,
Kurmitolla, Lal Munir Hat and Shamsher Nagar. Sea
Hawks from the carrier INS Vikrant also struck
Chittagong, Barisal andCox's Bazar , destroying the
eastern wing of the Pakistan Navy and effectively
blockading the East Pakistan ports, thereby cutting
off any escape routes for the stranded Pakistani
soldiers. The nascent Bangladesh Navy aided the
Indians in the marine warfare, carrying out attacks,
most notably Operation Jackpot .
Surrender and aftermath :
On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen Amir Abdullah Khan
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 and Bangladesh Liberation forces, making it
the largest surrender since World War II , although
the Pakistani Army had fought gallantly according to
Indian Army Chief Sam Manekshaw . 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
13,000 km 2 (5,019 sq mi) 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). This
was done as a measure of promoting "lasting
peace" and was acknowledged by many observers
as a sign of maturity by India. However, some in
India felt that the treaty had been too lenient to
Bhutto, who had pleaded for leniency, arguing that
the fragile democracy in Pakistan would crumble if
the accord was perceived as being overly harsh by
Pakistanis.
Atrocities :
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. Members of the Pakistani military and
supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat e Islami
killed an estimated 300,000 to 3,000,000 people
and raped between 200,000 and 400,000
Bangladeshi women in a systematic campaign of
genocidal rape . During the war, a fatwa in Pakistan
declared that the Bengali freedom fighters were
Hindus and that their women could be taken as "the
booty of war".
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.
Many mass graves have been discovered in
Bangladesh. The first night of war on Bengalis,
which is documented in telegrams from the
American Consulate in Dacca to the United States
State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of
students of Dacca University and other civilians.
Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed
during the war; the exact numbers are not known
and are a subject of debate. The widespread rape of
Bangladeshi women led to birth of thousands of
war babies . The Pakistan Army also kept numerous
Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Dacca
Cantonment. Most of the girls were captured from
Dacca University and private homes. There was
significant sectarian violence not only perpetrated
and encouraged by the Pakistani army, [128] but
also by Bengali nationalists against non-Bengali
minorities, especially Biharis . In June 1971, Bihari
representatives stated that 500,000 Biharis were
killed by Bengalis. R.J. Rummel gives a prudent
estimate of 150,000 killed.
On 16 December 2002, the George Washington
University 's National Security Archive published a
collection of declassified documents, consisting
mostly of communications between US embassy
officials and United States Information Service
centres in Dacca and India, and officials in
Washington, D.C. These documents show that US
officials working in diplomatic institutions within
Bangladesh used the terms "selective genocide" and
"genocide" (see The Blood Telegram ) for
information on events they had knowledge of at the
time. Genocide is the term that is still used to
describe the event in almost every major
publication and newspaper in Bangladesh, although
in Pakistan, the accusations against Pakistani forces
continue to be disputed.
Foreign reaction :

United Nations :
Though the United Nations condemned the human
rights violations during and following Operation
Searchlight, it failed to defuse the situation
politically before the start of the war.
Following India's entry into the war, Pakistan,
fearing certain defeat, made urgent appeals to the
United Nations to intervene and force India to agree
to a ceasefire . The UN Security Council assembled
on 4 December 1971 to discuss the hostilities in
South Asia. After lengthy discussions on 7
December, the United States made a resolution for
"immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops".
While supported by the majority, the USSR vetoed
the resolution twice. In light of the Pakistani
atrocities against Bengalis, the United Kingdom and
France abstained on the resolution.
On 12 December, with Pakistan facing imminent
defeat, the United States requested that the
Security Council be reconvened. Pakistan's Deputy
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, was rushed to New York City to make the
case for a resolution on the cease fire. The council
continued deliberations for four days. By the time
proposals were finalised, Pakistan's forces in the
East had surrendered and the war had ended,
making the measures merely academic. Bhutto,
frustrated by the failure of the resolution and the
inaction of the United Nations, ripped up his speech
and left the council.
Most UN member nations were quick to recognise
Bangladesh within months of its independence.

Bhutan
As the Bangladesh Liberation War approached the
defeat of the Pakistan Army, the Himalayan
kingdom of Bhutan became the first state in the
world to recognise the newly independent country
on 6 December 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the
first President of Bangladesh visited Bhutan to
attend the coronation of Jigme Singye Wangchuck ,
the fourth King of Bhutan in June 1974.

US and USSR :
Senator Ted Kennedy led US congressional support
for Bangladeshi independence The US government
stood by its old ally Pakistan in terms of diplomacy
and military threats. US President Richard Nixon
and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger
feared Soviet expansion into South and Southeast
Asia. Pakistan was a close ally of the People's
Republic of China, with whom Nixon had been
negotiating a rapprochement and which he
intended to visit in February 1972. Nixon feared
that an Indian invasion of West Pakistan would
mean total Soviet domination of the region, and
that it would seriously undermine the global
position of the United States and the regional
position of America's new tacit ally, China. To
demonstrate to China the bona fides of the United
States as an ally, and in direct violation of the US
Congress-imposed sanctions on Pakistan, Nixon sent
military supplies to Pakistan and routed them
through Jordan and Iran,while also encouraging
China to increase its arms supplies to Pakistan. The
Nixon administration also ignored reports it
received of the genocidal activities of the Pakistani
Army in East Pakistan, most notably the Blood
telegram .
The Soviet Union supported Bangladesh and Indian
armies, as well as the Mukti Bahini during the war,
recognising that the independence of Bangladesh
would weaken the position of its rivals – the United
States and China. It gave assurances to India that if
a confrontation with the United States or China
developed, the USSR would take countermeasures.
This was enshrined in the Indo-Soviet friendship
treaty signed in August 1971. The Soviets also sent a
nuclear submarine to ward off the threat posed by
USS Enterprise in the Indian Ocean.
At the end of the war, the Warsaw Pact countries
were among the first to recognise Bangladesh. The
Soviet Union accorded recognition to Bangladesh
on 25 January 1972. The United States delayed
recognition for some months, before according it on
8 April 1972.

China :
As a long-standing ally of Pakistan, the People's
Republic of China reacted with alarm to the
evolving situation in East Pakistan and the prospect
of India invading West Pakistan and Pakistani-
controlled Kashmir . Believing that just such an
Indian attack was imminent, Nixon encouraged
China to mobilise its armed forces along its border
with India to discourage it. The Chinese did not,
however, respond to this encouragement, because
unlike the 1962 Sino-Indian War when India was
caught entirely unaware, this time the Indian Army
was prepared and had deployed eight mountain
divisions to the Sino-Indian border to guard against
such an eventuality. China instead threw its weight
behind demands for an immediate ceasefire.
When Bangladesh applied for membership to the
United Nations in 1972, China vetoed their
application because two United Nations resolutions
regarding the repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of
war and civilians had not yet been implemented.
China was also among the last countries to
recognise independent Bangladesh, refusing to do
so until 31 August 1975.

Arab World :
As many Arab countries were allied with both the
United States and Pakistan , it was easy for Kissinger
to encourage them to participate. He sent letters to
both, the King of Jordan and the King of Saudi
Arabia . President Nixon gave permission for Jordan
to send ten F-104s and promised to provide
replacements. According to author Martin Bowman,
" Libyan F-5s were reportedly deployed to Sargodha
AFB , perhaps as a potential training unit to prepare
Pakistani pilots for an influx of more F-5s from Saudi
Arabia." Libyan dictator Gaddafi also personally
directed a strongly worded letter to Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi accusing her of aggression
against Pakistan, which endeared him to all
Pakistanis. In addition to these three countries, an
unidentified Middle Eastern ally also supplied
Pakistan with Mirage IIIs . However, other countries
such as Syria and Tunisia were against interfering
describing it as an internal matter of Pakistan.

Reference :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banglades
h_Liberation_War