• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / International / Featured Global

The Bangladesh Genocide. 5. The First Killing Fields

10/30/2021Massimo Introvigne |

On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army launched “Operation Searchlight.” It should have been a blitzkrieg. It became a genocide.

by Massimo Introvigne

Article 5 of 8. Read article 1, article 2, article 3, and article 4.

Killing fields with unearthing remains of East Pakistan’s soldiers killed in 1971.
Unearthing remains of East Pakistan’s soldiers killed in 1971. From Twitter.

As discussed in previous articles, the immediate cause of the Bangladesh genocide was the victory of the Awami League, which represented the interests of East Pakistan, in the national Pakistani political elections of December 7, 1970, where it obtained the absolute majority of the seats in the Assembly. The Western Pakistanis had no intention of being governed by Eastern Pakistanis, and both President General Yahya Khan (1917–1980), who was in power as head of a military regime, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928–1979), the leader of the largest party in West Pakistan, started negotiating with Awami leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975), called Mujib by Bengalis, trying to find a solution.

Mujib kept negotiating, but he went to his last meeting with Yahya Khan, on March 23, 1971, after having raised the flag of independence before a cheering crowd.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman raising the flag of independence, March 23, 1971. From Twitter.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman raising the flag of independence, March 23, 1971. From Twitter.

However, while negotiations were still going on in March 1971, by February the Pakistani Army had decided to intervene and put East Pakistan under a regime of military occupation. Riots in early March where Bengalis killed some 300 immigrants from the Indian state of Bihar, which were hostile to the Awami League, were later cited by the Army as the reason for the intervention. However, we now know that the decision to intervene had already been taken before the riots involving the Biharis.

Most documents on what happened in 1971 remain classified in Pakistan but in 2000 some were declassified, including (with the omission of some enclosures) the report of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, created in Pakistan in December 1971 to investigate the atrocities. While the report was ridiculed internationally for assessing the Bengali victims at 28,000 (even a figure ten times higher would have been too low), it did reveal, together with other documents, what the Western Pakistani establishment and the Army expected to achieve with the intervention.

Initially, the plan of the Pakistani Army anticipated that East Pakistan will be “pacified” in two weeks by some 30,000 soldiers from the West. The main leaders of the Awami League, and the intellectuals supporting them, will be arrested. Dhaka University, whose students had been the backbone of previous revolts, will be put under military control. East Pakistan troops, which were theoretically part of the same Pakistani Army but whose loyalty was doubted, will be disarmed. Publications of all media, radio, and television will be suspended, and East Pakistan will be put under a provisional military administration.

The plan, codenamed Operation Searchlight, started on March 25, 1971, after all foreign correspondents had been expelled from East Pakistan. It should have been concluded by April 10, but this was not to be. Mujid was captured on the first day of the operation, and sent to West Pakistan to be detained near Faisalabad. International protests avoided worst consequences for the Awami leader, but he was in prison for the rest of 1971. However, the capture of Mujid alerted the other Awami leaders, and most escaped to India or went underground.

Both university students and East Pakistan troops put up a resistance much stronger than expected, galvanized by the announcement by the Awami League of March 26, made on behalf of the incarcerated Mujid and broadcast from a radio in Chittagong still under control of the Bengalis, which proclaimed the independence of East Pakistan under the name of Bangladesh. In the same day, the Pakistani Army had secured control of Dhaka University, a key target, but only after killing some 400 students and professors. Hundreds of female students were then raped.

Eastern Pakistani soldiers also resisted disarmament, and thousands were killed in the first days of Operation Searchlight. By April 10, when theoretically the operation should have ended, the Pakistani Army controlled Dhaka and other major cities, although still finding resistance in Chittagong, but medium-sized cities such as Rajshahi and Sylhet and large areas of the countryside remained under the control of forces loyal to the Awami League.

Sculpture of the members of the first provisional Bangladeshi government, Mujibnagar.
Sculpture of the members of the first provisional Bangladeshi government, Mujibnagar. Credits.

Rather than the conclusion of the operations, April 10 saw the formation of a provisional government of independent Bangladesh in India and the formal institution of a Bangladeshi army, the Mukti Bahini. Ironically, the provisional government was established in Agartala, the very place where, as discussed in a previous article, where according to the Western Pakistani authorities the Awami League had started a conspiracy to overthrow the government, although it took oath on April 17 in Eastern Pakistani soil, in Baidyanathtala (renamed Mujibnagar after independence in honor of Mujib).

The reaction of (West) Pakistan was escalation. More troops were sent, eventually approaching the number of 100,000, and an ill-fated decision was taken to arm militias of Eastern Pakistanis hostile to the Awami League. They were either Bihari Muslims or Islamic fundamentalists, including members of the Jamaat-e-Islami. These militias will become responsible of some of the worst atrocities in the following months, and retaliation against them after the independence will lead to the killing by Bangladeshis of thousands of Biharis and members of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Arming the militias was part of a new program, a war of extermination aimed at killing entire parts of the East Pakistan’s population. We will discuss how the genocide developed in the next article of the series.

Tagged With: Bangladesh, Pakistan

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • Pakistan: An Islamic Republic with a Diplomatic Sexual Abuse Problem

    Pakistan: An Islamic Republic with a Diplomatic Sexual Abuse Problem

  • Pakistanis Accused of Blasphemy Persecuted Abroad as Well

    Pakistanis Accused of Blasphemy Persecuted Abroad as Well

  • Pakistan: Police Attacks Ahmadi Mosque in Gujranwala

    Pakistan: Police Attacks Ahmadi Mosque in Gujranwala

  • Joyland: The Strange Case of an Award-Winning Movie from Lahore Banned in Lahore

    Joyland: The Strange Case of an Award-Winning Movie from Lahore Banned in Lahore

Keep Reading

  • Court Determines Chanda Maharaj is 16, But Does Not Allow Her to Go Home
    Court Determines Chanda Maharaj is 16, But Does Not Allow Her to Go Home

    Doctors confirmed that the Hindu girl kidnapped in Pakistan is a minor and freed her from her “husband.” But she was sent to a shelter home.

  • Pakistan: Court Gives Back Hindu Girl to Her Kidnapper
    Pakistan: Court Gives Back Hindu Girl to Her Kidnapper

    One day after Chanda Maharaj was rescued by the police, a Pakistani court ruled she should go back to her Muslim “husband.”

  • UN: Pakistan Should Halt Forced Conversions, Marriages of Christian and Hindu Girls
    UN: Pakistan Should Halt Forced Conversions, Marriages of Christian and Hindu Girls

    Six Special Rapporteurs wrote to the government of Pakistan. They have now decided to publish their letter.

  • Pakistan: Boy Charged with Blasphemy for Calling God “Cruel” on Social Media
    Pakistan: Boy Charged with Blasphemy for Calling God “Cruel” on Social Media

    Confronted with tragedy, a young man shared his anguish and wrote God should be cruel if he allows it. Now, the boy risks the death penalty.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY