Bangladesh Liberation War

Bangladesh Liberation War
মুক্তিযুদ্ধ
Muktijuddhô
Part of the independence of Bangladesh, the Indo-Pakistani conflicts and the Cold War

Clockwise from top left: Martyred Intellectuals Memorial; Bangladesh Forces howitzer; A. A. K. Niazi signs the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender to the joint forces in the presence of Jagjit Singh Aurora;[1] and the PNS Ghazi
Date26 March – 16 December 1971
(8 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
Location
East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh)
Spillovers:
Result Bangladeshi–Indian victory[2][3][4]
Territorial
changes		 East Pakistan secedes from Pakistan as the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Belligerents
Bangladesh
India		 Pakistan
Commanders and leaders
Political:
Provisional Government of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Provisional Government of Bangladesh Tajuddin Ahmad
India Indira Gandhi

Military:
Provisional Government of Bangladesh M. A. G. Osmani
Provisional Government of Bangladesh A. K. Khandker
Provisional Government of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman
Provisional Government of Bangladesh K. M. Shafiullah
Provisional Government of Bangladesh Khaled Mosharraf
India Sam Manekshaw
India Jagjit Singh Arora

Political:
Yahya Khan
Nurul Amin
Tikka Khan
Abdul Motaleb Malik

Military:
Pakistan A. A. K. Niazi Surrendered
Pakistan Rao Farman Ali Surrendered
Pakistan Khadim Hussain Raja Surrendered

Militias:
Units involved
 Mukti Bahini
 Indian Armed Forces (3–16 Dec.)

 Pakistan Armed Forces

Paramilitary forces, political parties and militias:
Strength
Provisional Government of Bangladesh 175,000[5][6]
India 250,000[5]		 Pakistan ~91,000 regular troops[note 1]
280,000 Paramilitary forces[note 1]
~25,000 militiamen[8]
Casualties and losses
Provisional Government of Bangladesh ~30,000 killed[9]
India 1,426–1,525 killed[10]
3,611–4,061 wounded[10]		 Pakistan ~8,000 killed
~10,000 wounded
90,000—93,000 captured[11] (including 79,676 troops and 10,324—12,192 local militiamen)[10][12]
Civilian deaths:[13] Estimates range between 300,000 and 3,000,000.
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The Bangladesh Liberation War[note 2] (Bengali: মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, pronounced [mukt̪iɟud̪d̪ʱo]), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence and known as the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against East Pakistanis on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the Bangladesh genocide.[16]

In response to the violence, members of the Mukti Bahini—a guerrilla resistance movement formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians—launched a mass guerrilla war against the Pakistani military, liberating numerous towns and cities in the war's initial months. At first, the Pakistan Army regained momentum during the monsoon, but Bengali guerrillas counterattacked by carrying out widespread sabotage, including through Operation Jackpot against the Pakistan Navy, while the nascent Bangladesh Air Force flew sorties against Pakistani military bases.[17] India joined the war on 3 December 1971, after Pakistan launched preemptive air strikes on northern India. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War involved fighting on two fronts; with air supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre and the rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Mukti Bahini and the Indian military, Pakistan surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, in what remains to date the largest surrender of armed personnel since the Second World War.[18]

Rural and urban areas across East Pakistan saw extensive military operations and air strikes to suppress the tide of civil disobedience that formed after the 1970 election stalemate. The Pakistan Army, backed by Islamists, created radical religious militias—the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams—to assist it during raids on the local populace.[19][20][21][22][23] Members of the Pakistani military and supporting militias engaged in mass murder, deportation and genocidal rape, pursuing a systematic campaign of annihilation against nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel. The capital, Dhaka, was the scene of numerous massacres, including the Dhaka University massacre. Sectarian violence also broke out between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking Biharis. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were internally displaced.[24]

The war changed the geopolitical landscape of South Asia, with the emergence of Bangladesh as the world's seventh-most populous country. Due to complex regional alliances, the war was a major episode in Cold War tensions involving the United States, the Soviet Union and China. The majority of member states in the United Nations recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign nation in 1972.

  1. ^ "Instrument of Surrender of Pakistan forces in Dacca". mea.gov.in. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2017. The Pakistan Eastern Command agree to surrender all Pakistan Armed Forces in Bangladesh to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding-in –chief of the Indian and Bangladesh forces in the eastern theatre.
  2. ^ Rizwana Shamshad (3 October 2017). Bangladeshi Migrants in India: Foreigners, Refugees, or Infiltrators?. OUP India. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-0-19-909159-1. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  3. ^ Jing Lu (30 October 2018). On State Secession from International Law Perspectives. Springer. pp. 211–. ISBN 978-3-319-97448-4. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  4. ^ J.L. Kaul; Anupam Jha (8 January 2018). Shifting Horizons of Public International Law: A South Asian Perspective. Springer. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-81-322-3724-2. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ACIG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Pakistan & the Karakoram Highway By Owen Bennett-Jones, Lindsay Brown, John Mock, Sarina Singh, Pg 30
  7. ^ Cloughley, Brian (2016) [First published 1999]. A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections (4th ed.). Simon and Schuster. pp. 149, 222. ISBN 978-1-63144-039-7.
  8. ^ Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 442. ISBN 81-7062-014-7.
  9. ^ Thiranagama, Sharika; Kelly, Tobias, eds. (2012). Traitors : suspicion, intimacy, and the ethics of state-building. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812222371.
  10. ^ a b c Figures from The Fall of Dacca by Jagjit Singh Aurora in The Illustrated Weekly of India dated 23 December 1973 quoted in Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 486. ISBN 81-7062-014-7.
  11. ^ Khan, Shahnawaz (19 January 2005). "54 Indian PoWs of 1971 war still in Pakistan". Daily Times (Pakistan). Lahore. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  12. ^ Figure from Pakistani Prisoners of War in India by Col S. P. Salunke p. 10 quoted in Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 485. ISBN 81-7062-014-7.
  13. ^ "Bangladesh Islamist leader Ghulam Azam charged". BBC News. 13 May 2012. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  14. ^ Historical Dictionary of Bangladesh, Page 289
  15. ^ Moss, Peter (2005). Secondary Social Studies For Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780195977042. OCLC 651126824.
  16. ^ Paul, Priyam Pritim (26 March 2024). "Administrative dynamics in 1971's War of Liberation". The Daily Star. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  17. ^ Jamal, Ahmed (5–17 October 2008). "Mukti Bahini and the liberation war of Bangladesh: A review of conflicting views" (PDF). Asian Affairs. 30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  18. ^ Srinivasaraju, Sugata (21 December 2021). "The Bangladeshi liberation has lessons for India today". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  19. ^ Schneider, B.; Post, J.; Kindt, M. (2009). The World's Most Threatening Terrorist Networks and Criminal Gangs. Springer. p. 57. ISBN 9780230623293. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  20. ^ Grare, Frederic (2012). "Pakistan's Pursuit of Democracy". In Kalia, Ravi (ed.). Pakistan: From the Rhetoric of Democracy to the Rise of Militancy. Routledge. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-415-67040-1. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  21. ^ Pg 600. Schmid, Alex, ed. (2011). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-41157-8.
  22. ^ Pg. 240 Tomsen, Peter (2011). The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers. Public Affairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-763-8.
  23. ^ Roy, Kaushik; Gates, Professor Scott (2014). Unconventional Warfare in South Asia: Shadow Warriors and Counterinsurgency. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9781472405791. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  24. ^ Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert (2008). Dictionary of Genocide: A-L. ABC-CLIO. p. 34. ISBN 9780313346422. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2020.


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