Bangladesh Liberation War: A Visual History

The Bangladesh Liberation War (26 March to 16 December 1971) began when the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight against East Pakistan's Bengali nationalists after the Awami League's election victory was denied. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence and was arrested; the army and local collaborators killed an estimated 300,000 to 3 million people and raped some 200,000 women, and 10 million refugees fled to India. Bengali Mukti Bahini guerrillas fought through the summer; India intervened on 3 December after Pakistani air strikes and its army reached Dhaka in 13 days. Pakistan's 93,000 troops surrendered on 16 December, and Bangladesh was born.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Bangladesh Liberation War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Refugees in India by month, 1971

Timeline of the Bangladesh Liberation War

1. 1970
   Awami League wins the electionDecember.
2. 1971
   Operation Searchlight; declaration of independence25 to 26 March.
3. 1971
   Mukti Bahini campaign; refugee crisisApril to November.
4. 1971
   Indo-Pakistani war3 to 16 December.
5. 1971
   Pakistani surrender at Dhaka16 December.
6. 1972
   Mujib returns; Bangladesh recognised

Road to March 1971

East Pakistan held a majority of Pakistan's people but was ruled from West Pakistan; the Bengali language movement of 1952 and economic neglect fed nationalism, and Bhola cyclone relief failures in 1970 deepened it. In December 1970 Mujib's Awami League won 160 of 162 East Pakistani seats and a national majority. President Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto refused to seat the assembly; on the night of 25 March the army struck Dhaka University, the police and Hindu neighbourhoods.

Genocide and resistance

The army and its Bengali collaborators, the Razakars and al-Badr, killed intellectuals, Hindus and suspected nationalists across the country; the US consul Archer Blood's telegram called it 'selective genocide'. Refugees poured into West Bengal and Tripura. Bengali soldiers who mutinied and civilians trained in India formed the Mukti Bahini, which by autumn was mounting thousands of raids. Nixon and Kissinger, using Pakistan as a channel to China, backed Yahya; India signed a treaty with the USSR.

The 13-day war

Pakistan's pre-emptive air strikes on Indian airfields on 3 December gave India the war it wanted. Indian forces under General Aurora advanced from three sides with the Mukti Bahini, bypassing towns and using paratroops and river crossings; the Indian navy sank Pakistani ships and blockaded Chittagong, and the US sent the Enterprise carrier group into the Bay of Bengal in vain. On 14 December al-Badr murdered dozens of Dhaka's leading intellectuals; on 16 December Niazi surrendered at the Racecourse in Dhaka. Bhutto took over a shrunken Pakistan; Mujib returned in January 1972.

Bangladesh tried its war criminals from 2010; Pakistan has never apologised.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• United States (1776 to present)
• Soviet Union (USSR) (1922 to 1991)
• Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857)
• Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)
• Third Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)

Wars of the same era and region

• Cold War (1947 to 1991)
• Maratha invasions of Bengal (1741 to 1751)
• Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 to 2009)
• Indian annexation of Hyderabad (Operation Polo) (1948)

8 surprising things about the Bangladesh Liberation War

1. The Indian army's 13-day campaign is one of the shortest wars in history to create a new state.
2. The Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, was the first major rock benefit concert.
3. The 93,000 Pakistani prisoners were the largest surrender since World War II.
4. Archer Blood's dissent telegram is one of the most famous acts of protest in US diplomatic history.
5. Bhutto tore up his notes at the UN Security Council on 15 December and walked out.
6. Bangladesh's national anthem, Amar Sonar Bangla, is by Rabindranath Tagore, who also wrote India's.
7. The Indian general who took the surrender, Jagjit Singh Aurora, sat next to Niazi as he signed at Dhaka racecourse.
8. The country's official name Bangladesh means 'land of the Bengalis'; the war is 'Muktijuddho', the liberation war.

Sources

• Bangladesh Liberation War Wikipedia
• Bangladesh: The war of independence Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Gary J. Bass, The Blood Telegram (2013) Knopf

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