AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

Bangladesh Liberation War

Indian Army's T-55 tanks on their way to Dhaka. India's military intervention played a crucial role in turning the tide in favour of the Bangladeshi rebels.
Military Conflict
ConflictBangladesh Liberation War
Date26 March � 16 December 1971
LocationEast Pakistan
Result• Indian and Mukti Bahini victory against Pakistan
• Subsequent independence of Bangladesh
• Eastern Military High Command collapse
• Disintegration of United Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Territorial
changes
East Pakistan secedes to become Bangladesh
Bangladesh East Pakistan ---- Mukti Bahini
---- India India (joins the war on 3 December 1971)
Pakistan West Pakistan ---- Pakistan Defence Forces
Bangladesh General M A G Osmany
Lt.Gen. J.S. Aurora
FM Sam Manekshaw
Lt.Gen. Sagat Singh
Maj.Gen. JFR Jacob
LGen A.A.K. Niazi 
LGen Tikka Khan
RAdm M. Shariff 
Air-CDRE Enamul Huq
Bangladesh Forces: 175,000
India: 250,000
Pakistan Combatant Forces: ~ 365,000
Para Military: ~250,000
Bangladesh Forces: 30,000
India: 1,426 KIA
3,611 Wounded (Official)
1,525 KIA
4,061 Wounded
Pakistan
~8,000 KIA 
~10,000 WIA 
91,000 POWs
(56,694 Armed Forces
12,192 Paramilitary
rest civilians)

     Home | Military Conflict | Bangladesh Liberation War



The Bangladesh Liberation War(i) ( Muktijuddho) was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh.

The war broke out on 26 March 1971 as army units directed by West Pakistan launched a military operation in East Pakistan against Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, and armed personnel who were demanding separation of the East from West Pakistan. Bengali military, paramilitary, and civilians formed the Mukti Bahini ( "Liberation Army") and used guerrilla warfare tactics to fight against the West Pakistan army. India provided economic, military and diplomatic support to the Mukti Bahini rebels, leading Pakistan to launch Operation Chengiz Khan, a pre-emptive attack on the western border of India which started the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

On 16 December 1971, the allied forces of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini defeated the West Pakistani forces deployed in the East. The resulting surrender was the largest in number of prisoners of war since World War II.


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Bangladesh/Liberation/War?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Bangladesh/Liberation/War?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260