The Bangladesh Liberation War was fought in 1971 in East Pakistan, the eastern wing of Pakistan, and ended with the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh. It began with a Pakistani military crackdown in March 1971, became a guerrilla struggle led by Bengali nationalists, and ended in December after India entered the war. Mass killings of civilians during the conflict are widely described by scholars as the Bangladesh genocide.
A divided country
At the partition of India in 1947, Pakistan was formed from two Muslim-majority regions separated by some 1,600 kilometres of Indian territory. East Pakistan held most of the population, but political and military power lay largely in West Pakistan. Disputes over language, after Urdu was promoted as the sole national language, and over the sharing of revenue and investment fed a growing Bengali nationalist movement led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League.
The 1970 election
In Pakistan's first general election, in December 1970, the Awami League won 167 of East Pakistan's 169 seats, an overall majority in the national assembly. The military government of Yahya Khan and the leading West Pakistani party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, were unwilling to see Mujib form a government on his programme of wide autonomy. The assembly was postponed, and negotiations in Dhaka failed.
Operation Searchlight
On the night of 25 March 1971 the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight, a crackdown in Dhaka and other cities aimed at Bengali nationalists, students, intellectuals and police. Mujib was arrested and flown to West Pakistan, and independence was proclaimed on his behalf on 26 March. Over the following months the army and allied local militias killed large numbers of civilians, with Hindus especially targeted, and carried out widespread rape. Around ten million refugees fled to India.
Guerrilla war
Bengali soldiers, police and volunteers formed the Mukti Bahini, the liberation forces, which waged a guerrilla war from bases in India with Indian training and supplies. A government in exile was set up. The crisis drew international attention, while the Cold War shaped reactions: the Soviet Union signed a treaty with India in August, and the United States and China backed Pakistan.
India enters the war
After Pakistani air strikes on Indian airfields on 3 December 1971, India declared war. Indian forces and the Mukti Bahini advanced quickly on Dhaka, while fighting also took place on the western front. On 16 December the Pakistani commander in the east surrendered in Dhaka, and some 90,000 Pakistani soldiers and other personnel became prisoners of war. Shortly before the surrender, militias allied with the army killed many Bengali intellectuals.
The toll
The number of people killed is deeply contested. Bangladesh officially gives a figure of three million; independent estimates range widely, from about 300,000 upwards. Estimates of women raped, mostly from Bangladeshi sources, run from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand.
Aftermath
Mujib returned in January 1972 as Bangladesh's leader. India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement in 1972, the prisoners were repatriated, and Pakistan recognised Bangladesh in 1974. In West Pakistan, the defeat brought Bhutto to power.
On our maps
Our 1960 map shows East Pakistan as part of Pakistan, beside India, and the 1985 map shows independent Bangladesh.
In pictures
5 images · scroll →From the atlas
Bangladesh Liberation War in time and on the map
Bangladesh Liberation War took place in 1971. The nearest maps from before and after are 1960 and 1985; compare them side by side.
Living through it, among others on this site: Anwar Sadat (1918–1981), Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006), Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), Desmond Tutu (1931–2021), Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989), Fidel Castro (1926–2016) and Francisco Franco (1892–1975).
Other events of the same years: Satsuma Rebellion (1877–2005), Nahda (1900–2000), Cold War (1945–1991), Decolonisation of Africa (1950–1975), Vietnam War (1955–1975), Dirty War (1955–1989), Space Race (1957–1975), The Troubles (1960–1998), Second-wave feminism (1960–1980) and Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974).
Next to it in time on this site: before, Stonewall riots (1969) and Black September (1970–1971); after, India–Pakistan war of 1971 (1971) and Watergate scandal (1972–1974).
Quick answers
- When did Bangladesh Liberation War happen?
- In 1971.
- Where did Bangladesh Liberation War take place?
- East Pakistan and Bangladesh.
- How did the map change?
- Compare the atlas’s maps of 1960 and 1985 side by side.