| Bangladesh Liberation War | |||||||||
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 The war began after the Pakistani military launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Bengal (East pakistan) on the night of 25 March 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians East Bengal Regiment and all Bengali paramilitary and Civil defense personal . | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 India (3-16 December, 1971) |
Paramilitary forces:
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tajuddin Ahmad Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani Kazi Mohammad Shafiullah Ziaur Rahman Khaled Mosharraf Sam Manekshaw Jagjit Singh Aurora Jacob Farj Rafael Jacob |  Yahya Khan Nurul Amin Abdul Motaleb Malik   Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi Rao Farman Ali Mohd Jamshed Tikka Khan Mohammad Shariff  Leslie Mungavin  Patrick Desmond Callaghan Ghulam Azam (East Pakistan Central Peace Committee) Motiur Rahman Nizami (Al-Badr) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
175,000[1][2] 250,000[1] | ~365,000 regular troops (90,000+ in East Pakistan)[1] ~25,000 militiamen[3] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ~30,000 killed[4][5] 1,426–1,525 killed[6] 3,611–4,061 wounded[6] | ~8,000 killed ~10,000 wounded ~93,000 captured[7](including 56,694 troops and 12,192 local militiamen)[6][8] | ||||||||
| Civilian death:[5] Estimates range between 300,000 and 3 million. | |||||||||
The war began after the Pakistani military launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Bengal (East pakistan) on the night of 25 March 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians East Bengal Regiment and all Bengali paramilitary and Civil defense personal .
Beginning of the war
The Bangladesh Liberation War(Bengali: মুক্তিযুদ্ধ Muktijuddho), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by Bengali Nationalism .
It resulted in the independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
Operation Searchlight The ruthless and brutal armed operation undertaken by the Pakistan army .
It was termed as 'Operation Searchlight' by the military authority. The purpose of this operation was to arrest or kill all bengali political leaders, student leaders and Teacher , scintist , writer living in the main cities of the then Bangladesh (East Pakistan ) including Dhaka, to disarm the Bangali personnels of military, para military and police forces and to capture armoury, radio station and telephone exchange, thereby to take over the control of the province of East Pakistan .
The plan was drawn up in March 1971 by Major General Khadim Hussain Raja. Before putting the plan into action, senior Pakistani officers in East Pakistan who were unwilling to support the military attack on civilians, Lt. General Shahabzada Yakub Khan, GOC East Pakistan, and the governor of East Pakistan, Vice Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were relieved of their duties.Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan became the Governor and GOC of East Pakistan.
Major General Rao Farman Ali, as a followup of decisions taken at a meeting of the Pakistani army staff on 22 February.
The 16th infantry division from Quetta and the 9th division from Kharian, West Pakistan, were ordered to prepare to move to East Pakistan in mid-February also as a result of that meeting.
On 17 March, General Raja was given authority to plan the operation via telephone by General Hamid, COS, Pakistan Army. On the morning of 18 March, General Raja and Major General Rao Farman Ali wrote the plan at the GOC's office at Dacca (Dhaka) cantonment. The plan was written on a "Light Blue Office Pad with a Lead Pencil" by General Farman containing "16 Paragraphs Spread Over Five Pages".
General Farman defined the operational premises and conditions for success, while General Khadim Raja dealt with the distribution of forces and tasks assigned to the individual brigades and other units. It assumed that the Bengali Army and other military units would revolt at the onset of operations and the planners suggested that all Bengali units under arms should be disarmed prior to commencing the operation, and the political leadership arrested during a planned meeting with the President, General Yahya Khan. No operational reserves were earmarked. The handwritten plan was reviewed with General Hamid and Lt. General Tikka Khan on 20 March at the flag staff house. General Hamid objected to the immediate disarming of regular army Bengali units, but approved the disarming of the EPR, armed police and other para-military formations. Yahya Khan refused to sanction the arrest of Awami League leaders during a meeting with him, as the plan had proposed.[24] The amended plan was approved and distributed to various area commanders.
The Operation was to start on the night of 25 March 1971 in Dacca, and other garrisons were to be alerted via phone about their zero hour to start their activities. General Farman Ali commanded the forces in Dhaka, while the rest of the province was commanded by General Khadim. Lt. General Tikka Khan and his staff were present in the 31st field command centre, to supervise and support the command staff of the 14th division. The initial plan to arrest by a company of No 3 SSG, led by major ZA Khan was scheduled at 0100 on 26 March night.
Pakistan Army Bengali units in East Pakistan
Six regular army Bengali infantry regiments were present in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) in March 1971. The 1st East Bengal Regiment (EBR) was in Jessore, attached to the 107th Brigade. The 2nd EBR was in Joydevpur north of Dacca, attached to the 57th Brigade. The 3rd EBR was in Saidpur with the 23rd Brigade, and the 4th EBR was in Comilla with the 53rd Brigade. The 8th EBR was preparing to ship to West Pakistan and was at 75% strength in Chittagong. The East Bengal Regimental Center (EBRC) in Chittagong housed 2,000 Bengali troops including the newly raised 9th EBR. The 10th EBR, a training unit, was in the Dacca cantonment attached to the 14th Division. Bengali officers commanded the 1st, 2nd and the 10th EBR, while the rest were under Pakistani officers.
East Pakistan Police, almost exclusively Bengali, had 33,995 members of all ranks, 23,606 members were armed while the rest had fire arms training.[35] Several Thousand Anser and Mujahid members, trained to fire .303 rifles, were scattered around the province. The East Pakistan Rifles (EPR), a 15,000 strong (80% Bengali)[36] paramilitary force, was divided into 17 operational wings (each wing contained 3 to 6 companies of 150 men each) in 7 sectors (headquartered in Dacca, Mymenshingh, Jessore, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Sylhet and Chittagong) and was deployed around the country. The EPR companies were often divided into sections (15–20 soldiers) and platoons (20–35 soldiers) and deployed in camps near the border or in border outposts. Unlike regular army units, EPR companies were commanded by JCO/NCOs (army companies normally were commanded by Captains or Major ranked officers), and EPR wings contained only light anti-tank weapons and a mortar platoon with 6 mortars as artillery. EPR Headquarters and 2,500 EPR troops were posted in Dhaka. The majority of the EPR officers were from West Pakistan, serving on deputation from the regular army for 2 to 3 years.
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