Text by Manolis Chatzimanolis

Cover image: Indian Army soldiers at the Bangladesh border, in what was East Pakistan.

The partition of British India into four sovereign states (India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Burma) during their independence in the years 1947–1948¹, apart from the issue of the fate of Muslim-majority Kashmir, also left the peoples of the region with the problem of East Bengal (known as East Pakistan from 1969).

Although it was included as an Islamic region within the federal state of Pakistan, the country (East Pakistan) differed significantly from the multi-ethnic West Pakistan in terms of language, ethnicity, religion, and culture. After repeated mobilizations by the Bengalis in 1950 (over the language issue), in 1964, and again during the mass demonstrations of 1969—which led to the resignation of Pakistan’s second president, Ayub Khan, and the rise to power of General Yahya Khan² —the simmering crisis escalated. In the national elections of 1970, the East Pakistani social-liberal party AWAMI League (Bānglādēsh Awāmī Līg) led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won 167 out of 169 seats in the East Pakistan Assembly and gained an absolute majority in the federal parliament, while the socialist People’s Party, supported by the majority of West Pakistanis, came in second.

Completely opposed to Sheikh Rahman’s liberal agenda, the conservative West Pakistani military elite, who dominated Pakistan’s army, united around the opposition and resisted transferring power to the AWAMI League. The ensuing crisis, with East Pakistan shaken by mass strikes and protests orchestrated by AWAMI, and violent attacks by enraged Bengalis against the Bihari minority (perceived as pro-West Pakistani), led to a military intervention by the Pakistani army (Operation Searchlight). The AWAMI League was outlawed, and members or supporters who escaped arrest fled to eastern India. According to international sources, the number of Bengali refugees reached 10 million, and deaths are estimated between 200,000 and 3 million, giving Operation Searchlight, which was followed by Operation Barisal, the characteristics of genocide³.

A rift also emerged within the ranks of the Pakistani army, as part of it defected and fled to eastern India, siding with the AWAMI League. Thus, the exiled government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which on March 26, 1971, declared the independence of the state of Bangladesh, also gained a military wing, composed of both regular and guerrilla forces, led by retired Colonel Mohammad Ataul Gani Osmani.

The inevitable involvement of the Indian government under Indira Gandhi, which set up refugee camps on Indian soil and appealed to the international community for intervention, led to a military explosion in December. The Pakistani Air Force (PAF), in an unsuccessful attempt to imitate Israel’s dramatic Operation Focus from the Six-Day War four years earlier, launched multiple preemptive strikes on Indian territory (Operation Chengiz Khan). Both countries had been preparing intensely for the upcoming conflict since November, as they had already clashed twice before (in 1947 and 1965) over the thorny issue of Kashmir.

India responded by immediately mobilizing its Armed Forces and launching combined ground, air, and naval operations: while Indian forces on the western front held off the Pakistani offensive, the eastern front saw a full-scale invasion aimed at capturing the capital of East Pakistan, Dhaka.

On the western front, after repelling Pakistani attacks, the Indian Army launched a highly successful counteroffensive, occupying territory in Azad Kashmir, Punjab, and Sindh (which India returned to Pakistan as a goodwill gesture in 1972 through the Simla Agreement), and decimating Pakistan’s I and II Corps as well as the Punjab Marine detachment.

On the eastern front, nine infantry divisions under Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, reinforced with tanks and close air support, quickly broke through the disorganized Pakistani forces and converged on Dhaka from three directions, also linking up with their Bengali allies. By December 16, it was all over: with Pakistan’s eastern command surrounded in Dhaka, Pakistan declared a ceasefire and unconditional surrender of its Armed Forces, ending the war.

The conflict also drew in the two superpowers diplomatically and militarily: the United States supported Pakistan, while the Soviet Union backed the Bengalis and Indians. However, the overwhelming success of the Indian Armed Forces forced the U.S. to accept the new balance of power in Southeast Asia and adjust its policy accordingly.

With 8,000 military personnel killed, 25,000 wounded, and over 90,000 taken prisoner during the 13-day conflict (December 3–16, 1971), the war was a catastrophic defeat for Pakistan. The country lost:

• Half of its navy (a large portion trapped in bases in East Pakistan),
• A quarter of its air force,
• A third of its army, and
• All of East Pakistan, which is now the independent state of Bangladesh-a successful example of a secessionist movement supported by external military intervention .

1. At the time of Partition in 1947, Pakistan was created as a two-winged state: West Pakistan (modern-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh), separated by over 1,600 kilometers of Indian territory. ↩︎
2. General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, who assumed power in 1969, held Pakistan’s first general elections in 1970 under universal adult suffrage. ↩︎
3. Independent researchers and journalists (e.g., Anthony Mascarenhas, Archer Blood, and Siddiq Salik) documented mass killings, rape, and atrocities. The term genocide has been used by numerous scholars and human rights organizations. The U.S. Consul General in Dhaka, Archer Blood, sent the now-famous “Blood Telegrams” to Washington, condemning the U.S. government’s silence on human rights abuses. ↩︎