Liberation War Bangladesh 1971

Liberation War Bangladesh  1971

 

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Date 26 March – 16 December 1971 (8 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)

Location East Pakistan and the Bay of Bengal

Result Liberation and independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Collapse of the Pakistan Eastern Military Command Victory of Bangladesh-India Allied Forces

Territorial changes East Pakistan secedes to become independent Bangladesh

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Belligerents

Bangladesh Mukti Bahini India (joins the war on 3 December 1971) [1]

Pakistan Pakistan Armed Forces

Paramilitary Forces :

Jamaat-e-Islami Shanti committee Razakars Al-Badr Al-Shams

Commanders and leaders

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman M. A. G. Osmani K. M. Shafiullah Ziaur Rahman Khaled Mosharraf J.S. Aurora Sam Manekshaw Sagat Singh J. F. R. Jacob

A.A.K. Niazi (POW) Tikka Khan Abdul Hamid Khan Mohammad Shariff (POW) Patrick D. Callaghan Enamul Huq Khadim Hossein Raja Rao Farman Ali (POW) A. O. Mitha Mohd Jamshed (POW) Jahanzeb Arbab Ghulam Azam (Shanti committee) Motiur Rahman Nizami (Al-Badr)

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Strength

Bangladesh Forces: 175,000 [2][3]

India: 500,000 [2]

Pakistan Armed Forces: ~ 365,000 (90,000 in East Pakistan) [2]

Paramilitary forces: ~25000 [4]

Casualties and losses

Bangladesh Forces and civilians:Number varied from 300,000-500,000 to more than three million [5]

India: 1,426 KIA 3,611 Wounded (Official) 1,525 KIA 4,061 Wounded [6]

93,000 [7] POWs (56,694 Armed Forces 12,192 Paramilitary 24,114 Civilians) [6][8]

Civilian death: [9] More than three million (government statistics), 300,000-30,00000 (individual researchers prediction) [10]

The Bangladesh Liberation War [a]

(Bengali: মুিযুMuktijuddho) was a revolutionary independence war in South Asia during 1971 which established the republic of Bangladesh. [14] The war pitted East Pakistan (later joined by India) against West Pakistan,and lasted over a duration of nine months. It witnessed large-scale atrocities,the exodus of 10 million refugees and the displacement of 30 million people. [15]

The war broke out on 26 March 1971, when the Pakistani Army launched a military operation called Operation Searchlight against Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia and armed personnel, who were demanding that the Pakistani military junta accept the results of the 1970 first democratic elections of Pakistan,which were won by an eastern party, or to allow separation between East and West Pakistan. Bengali politicians and army officers announced the declaration of Bangladesh's independence in response to Operation Searchlight. Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians formed the Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুিবািহনী "Liberation Army"), which engaged in guerrilla warfare against Pakistani forces. The Pakistan Army, in collusion with religious extremist [16][17] militias (the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams), engaged in the systematic genocide and atrocities of Bengali civilians, particularly nationalists, intellectuals, youth and religious minorities. [18][19][20][21][22]

Bangladesh government-in-exile was set up in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the Indian State of West Bengal.

India entered the war on 3 December 1971, after Pakistan launched pre-emptive air strikes on northern India. Overwhelmed by two war fronts, Pakistani defences soon collapsed. On 16 December, the Allied Forces of Bangladesh and India defeated Pakistan in the east. The subsequent surrender resulted in the largest number of prisoners-of-war since World War II.