50 years of 1971 war | Pakistan's atrocities, India's intervention & Bangladesh's liberation - a timeline

Fifty years since the 1971 war which led to the independence of Bangladesh. Each country involved in the conflict remembers it in a different manner.

Bangladesh remembers it as the Bengali people’s struggle against an oppressive Pakistan army. Meanwhile, India and Pakistan remember it as the third Indo-Pakistan war.

What escalated the war?

The struggle for rights for Bengalis started after Pakistan gained independence as a country with two connecting territories known as West Pakistan (today’s Pakistan) and East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh).

Pakistan refused to accept Bengali as a state language in the early years after Partition. Many Bengali Muslims strongly objected to the Islamist paradigm imposed by the Pakistani state. Economic disparity, the hegemony of the West Pakistani ruling elite over martial laws, cultural and linguistic differences, ideology, were all the burning points for the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

In December 1970, tensions heightened when the Awami League party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman based in East Pakistan, won the national elections but West Pakistan parties, namely the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), refused to hand over power.

What led to India’s intervention?

In 1971, the Pakistani military began a violent crackdown to suppress the Bengali opposition and the rallies taken out against them. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan.

As the violence escalated, a large number of refugees streamed into Indian territory, which gave India paved the way for India’s intervention.

An investigative commission set up by Pakistan claims 26,000 people were killed in the army’s targeted killings, but Bangladesh places the figure at 3 million.

The liberation of Bangladesh: a timeline

March 25, 1971: Pakistan army launches Operation Searchlight, attacks civilians, politicians, and police

March 26: Sheikh Mujibur Rehman declares independence, arrested minutes later

April 1: Pakistan Army continues attacks, civilians in 9-hour Jinjira offensive

May 15: India starts helping Mukti Bahini, Bangladesh’s guerilla resistance forces

August 15: Operation Jackpot: Mukti Bahini aided by Indian military launches a series of attacks against the Pakistan Army

September – December: India along with Bangladeshi forces engage in several battles with Pakistan

December 3: Pakistan launches airstrikes on India after Bangladesh destroys its oil depots

December 3: PM Indira Gandhi says airstrikes are a declaration of war, India officially joins the war

December 4: Battle of Longewala – India successfully thwarts Pakistan’s attack in the western sector of Rajasthan

December 4-5: Operation Trident – Indian Navy’s attack on Pakistan ships near Karachi port

December 7: Battle of Sylhet begins, leads to liberation of Jessore, Sylhet

December 8: Operation Python: India navy launches another attack on Pakistan ships in Karachi

December 11: Hilli, Mymenshingh, Kushtia and Noakhali liberated

December 16: Pakistan surrenders, General Niazi signs the instrument of surrender. Bangladesh is liberated.