The Indo - Pak War Began

 3rd December 1971: The Indo-Pak War Began. 



The 1971 India Pakistan War, which ended in the formation of a new country, Bangladesh, began on December 3. The war followed months of fighting between the West Pakistan army and Bangladesh liberation forces. In 1967, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who had announced a six-point programme for provincial autonomy for East Pakistan and other Bengali leaders were accused of fomenting a secessionist movement with Indian support, but the trial that was held in Dacca (now Dhaka) only made Mujibur a hero in the eyes of most East Pakistanis. 

In the 1970 elections in Pakistan, Mujibur's party, East Pakistani Awami League, won an overwhelming 167 of 169 seats in East Pakistan, consequently even bagging a simple majority in the 313 seat Pakistan Parliament. However, the West Pakistan establishment refused to let Majibur from the government. Instead, the military was called in to crush dissent in East Pakistan. With the discontent and Protests in East Pakistan intensifying, the Pakistani army started a brutal crackdown in March 1971, committing large-scale atrocities including mass killings. Majibur was arrested and several members of the Awami League fled to India.

 On the evening of March 27, Ziaur Rahman, an army officer from East Bengal (who would later become president of Bangladesh), declared on the radio: "I...hereby declare...independence of The people's republic of Bangladesh, in the name of our great leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani army. We shall fight to the last to free our motherland.


 

 The Indian army began to prepare for what looked like an inevitable war. This including training fighters of the Mukti Bahini. In this book Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation, Lt. Gen JFR Jacob, who was India's Chief of Staff, Eastern Army, during the Bangladesh war, gives an insight into the thinking in the Indian military camp." it was my assessment that the Pakistani Army... would almost certainly defend the main towns and cities, assessing that the Indian aim would be to seize a sizable portion of territory to set up a credible Bangladesh Government-in-exile... I had no doubt that Dacca was the geopolitical and geostrategic heart of East Pakistan and that the capture of Dacca was the essential part of any operation."

 On the morning of December 4, Indira Gandhi said in a speech to the Lok sabha: ....West Pakistan has escalated and enlarged the aggression against Bangladesh into full war against India... We should be prepared for a long struggle." In the end, it would not be a very long struggle. The 1971 India-Pakistan war ended on December 16, with the surrender of The Pakistani army and the birth of Bangladesh.



Location: India

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