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Setting the scene
The Bangladesh Liberation War began March 26, 1971, when East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh, leading to a nine-month war with West Pakistan. East Pakistan, separated by 1,000 miles of India, was culturally and linguistically Bengali and economically exploited by West Pakistan, which held political power. In the 1970 elections, the Bengali Awami League won a majority, but West Pakistan refused to transfer power.
What happened
On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight, a brutal crackdown in Dhaka, killing thousands of students and intellectuals. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence the next day. The Pakistani army, with Islamist militias, conducted a genocide—killing 300,000 to 3 million Bengalis, raping 200,000-400,000 women, and displacing 10 million refugees to India. India intervened on December 3, 1971, after Pakistan attacked Indian airbases.
Why it still matters
The war ended December 16, 1971, with Pakistan's surrender—93,000 Pakistani troops, the largest surrender since WWII. Bangladesh became independent. The war demonstrated the failure of a nation built on religion alone to overcome ethnic and linguistic differences. It also showed the limits of U.S. Cold War policy—America supported Pakistan despite genocide, while the USSR backed India. The Bangladesh genocide remains one of the 20th century's worst atrocities, and the war created the world's eighth-most-populous nation.
Background
Pakistan split in two.