History's worst Genocide in Bangladesh

Out of extreme frustration, Pakistan military started indiscriminate killing of innocent Bengalees, destroying of villages, raping of women and looting valuables. By playing up religious sentiments, Pakistan Army tried to instigate the humble-minded Bengalee Muslims to kill or drive out the Hindu people who were ‘colored’ as pro-Indian. By playing on the same sentiment, they created some auxiliary forces like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakars to collaborate with the Pakistani military in identifying and eliminating those who sympathized with the Liberation War. The Freedom Fighters operating behind the enemy lines were to be hunted down by the Razakars and were to be delivered to the military for torturing and killing. So-called Peace Committees composed of these collaborators were set up at different places to show that normalcy was prevailing. The repression was growing left and right. The Pakistani military junta watched that the freedom fighters were growing in strength and were achieving success after success. To hoodwink the international community, Pakistani Army launched a worldwide campaign to color that the Liberation War was merely a rebellion against the sovereignty of Pakistan and Indian army was behind all these. About 10 million Bengalees fled to India to escape the military repression. This was depicted by Pakistani Army as India's own game to draw international sympathy. However, the truth about the actual character of the liberation war and the atrocities committed by Pakistani military became well known to the wider world through independent reports by the foreign journalists and messages sent home by the diplomatic community in Dhaka. A report published on March 30, to the Daily Telegraph of London by Simon Dring was one of many similar reports. It said: "An estimated three battalions of troops were used in the attack on Dhaka - one of armoured, one of artillery and one of infantry. They started leaving their barracks shortly before 10 p.m. By 11 p.m. firing had broken out and the people who started to erect makeshift barricades-overturned cars, tree stumps, furniture, concrete piping-became early casualties.  Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur was warned by telephone that something was happening, but he refused to leave his house." "If I go into hiding they will burn the whole of Dhaka to find me," he told an aide who escaped arrest. The students’ community was also warned, but those who were still around later told that most of them thought they would be arrested only. Led by M-24 World War II tanks, one column of Pakistani troops sped to Dhaka University after midnight. Troops took over the British Council Library and used the place as fire-base from where to shell nearby dormitory areas. Most unfortunately some 200 students were killed in Iqbal Hall headquarters of the anti-government students' union. Two days later, bodies were still smoldering in burnt-out rooms; others were scattered outside, floated in a near-by lake. The military removed many of the dead bodies, but the 30 bodies still there could never have accounted for all the blood in the corridors of Iqbal Hall." The way of freedom for the people of Bangladesh was terrifying, smeared with blood, toil and sacrifices. According to contemporary history perhaps no nation paid as heavily as the Bengalees did for their emancipation. During the nine months of the liberation War, the Pakistan military killed about three million people and inflicted brutal tortures on millions more before their ignominious defeat and the surrender on 16 December 1971. Thousands of Pakistani well-armed troops were killed by freedom fighters. The War of Liberation was literally fought in the name of Bangabandhu Shekh Mujibur Rahman and under the leadership of the government which Bagabandhu’s party formed during those eventful days. The Liberation War was not fought on the battlefield alone. Millions of unarmed people including women and children provided support to the freedom fighters in running errands, hiding and transporting arms and ammunition, providing shelter and food, nursing the sick and the wounded. In consonance with Bangabandhu Shekh Mujib’s Declaration of Independence, a provisional revolutionary government was formed in exile in Mujibnagar on April 17, 1971 with Bangabandhu as the President in absentia. In his absence, the Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam with Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister coordinated the war operations, arranged funds for it and carried on negotiations with various foreign governments. The radio station calling itself 'Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra' continued transmitting patriotic programmes throughout the liberation war to inspire the Freedom Fighters as well as the people behind the Pak army line. A recurrent theme of those programmes was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Declaration of Independence and his historic 7th March speech at Suhrawardy Uddyan. Several hundred civil servants undertook grave risks, left their posts and joined the Government-in-exile. Scores of Bengalee diplomats defected from Pakistani Missions abroad and began to earn international opinion in favor of Bangladesh. Thousands of Bengalee expatriates joined their hands with their foreign friends and sympathizers in raising funds and building public opinion for the cause of War of liberation. They could come out successful in collecting contributions and efforts in a short time. Thus, Bangabandhu's dream of an Independent State of Bangladesh finally got materialized.