Bangladesh Liberation 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.[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.A proposal for an independent United Bengal was mooted by Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1946 but opposed by the colonial authorities.[25] Political negotiations led, in August 1947, to the official birth of two states, Pakistan and India,[26] giving presumably permanent homes for Muslims and Hindus, respectively, after the British departed.[28] 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[29] and suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establishment, in what came to be termed Operation Searchlight.[36] Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India actively aided and organised the Bangladeshi resistance army, the Mukti Bahini.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 repulse any Indian retaliations during the conflict.[49] After the liberation victory, the Awami League attempted to build a secular order[56] and the pro-Pakistan Islamist parties were barred from political participation.[58] Although East Pakistan accounted for a slight majority of the country's population,[59] political power remained in the hands of West Pakistanis.In this speech he mentioned a further four-point condition to consider at the National Assembly Meeting on 25 March:[citation needed] He urged his people to turn every house into a fort of resistance.[62][63][64] 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,[65] killing an estimated 300,000 people.[66] 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.[67] 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".[78] According to the Asia Times:[79] 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".The Pakistani army denied any cold-blooded killings at the university, but the Hamoodur Rahman Commission in Pakistan concluded that overwhelming force was used.Following these incidents, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read:[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some students in Chittagong.Indian leadership initially envisioned a well trained force of 8,000 guerrillas, operating in small cells around Bangladesh to facilitate eventual conventional combat.[98] During June and July, Mukti Bahini regrouped across the border with Indian aid through Operation Jackpot and began sending 2,000–5,000 guerrillas across the border,[99] 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.[citation needed] All unprejudiced persons objectively surveying the grim events in Bangladesh since March 25 have recognised the revolt of 75 million people, a people who were forced to the conclusion that neither their life, nor their liberty, to say nothing of the possibility of the pursuit of happiness, was available to them.Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi concluded that instead of taking in millions of refugees, India would be economically better off going to war against Pakistan.[citation needed] Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi provided extensive diplomatic and political support to the Bangladesh movement.[citation needed] 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.[144] 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.[147] US President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger feared Soviet expansion into South and Southeast Asia.The Nixon administration also ignored reports it received of the genocidal activities of the Pakistani Army in East Pakistan, most notably the Blood telegram.[citation needed] When Bangladesh applied for membership to the United Nations in 1972, China vetoed its application[159] because two U.N. resolutions about the repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of war and civilians had not yet been implemented.[161]: 7 Despite the left-wing government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike following a neutral non-aligned foreign policy, Sri Lanka decided to help Pakistan in the war.[148] 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."[165] 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.
independence of BangladeshIndo-Pakistani conflictsCold WarMartyred Intellectuals MemorialBangladesh ForceshowitzerA. A. K. NiaziPakistani Instrument of SurrenderJagjit Singh AuroraPNS GhaziEast Pakistanpresent-dayBangladeshIndia–East Pakistan borderIndia–East Pakistan enclavesNortheast IndiaIndia–West Pakistan borderLine of ControlKashmirZero PointBay of BengalArabian SeaSurrender of Pakistani forcessecedesPakistanPeople's Republic of BangladeshSheikh Mujibur RahmanTajuddin AhmadIndira GandhiM. A. G. OsmaniA. K. KhandkerZiaur RahmanK. M. ShafiullahKhaled MosharrafSam ManekshawJagjit Singh AroraYahya KhanNurul AminHamid KhanTikka KhanAbdul Motaleb MalikRao Farman AliWilliam Harrison Khadim Hussain RajaGhulam AzamSyed Khwaja KhairuddinMotiur Rahman NizamiFazlul ChaudhryMukti BahiniIndian Armed ForcesPakistan Armed ForcesJamaat-e-IslamiEast Pakistan Central Peace CommitteeRazakarsAl-BadrAl-ShamsMujahid BahiniPakistan Democratic PartyCivilian deathsCPB-NAP-BSU resistanceMukti Bahini resistanceSearchlightJackpotBarisal1st Kamalpur2nd KamalpurDaruinNakshi Border OutpostRangamati-Mahalchari waterwayGoalhatiDhalai Border OutpostGaribpurGazipurSylhetKushtiaGhasipurShiromoniIndian interventionCactus-LillyChengiz KhanPNS GhaziTridentPythonKamalpurBasantarDhalaiLongewalaMeghna Heli BridgeTangailAir WarNaval WarBangladesh genocideDhaka UniversityShankhariparaJinjiraAkhiraJathibhangaChuknagarMadhyaparaBakhrabadBurungaAgartala Conspiracy CaseKilling of intellectualsProvisional GovernmentPartition of BengalBengali language movementSix point movementEleven Points ProgrammeEast Pakistan mass uprisingPakistani general electionNon-cooperation movement7 March SpeechOperation SearchlightProclamation of IndependenceEast Pakistan Renaissance SocietyAwami LeagueUnited FrontEast Pakistan Communist PartySarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram ParishadSwadhin Bangla Biplobi ParishadSwadhin Bangla Betar KendraAbul Kalam ShamsuddinHabibullah Bahar ChowdhuryMujibur Rahman KhanHuseyn Shaheed SuhrawardySerajul Alam Khan