§ indicates events in the internal resistance movement linked to the Indo-Pakistani War. ‡ indicates events in the Indo-Pakistani War linked to the internal resistance movement in Bangladesh.
In response to the violence, members of the Mukti Bahini—a guerrilla resistance movement formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians—launched a mass guerrilla war against the Pakistani military, liberating numerous towns and cities in the war's initial months. At first, the Pakistan Army regained momentum during the monsoon, but Bengali guerrillas counterattacked by carrying out widespread sabotage, including through Operation Jackpot against the Pakistan Navy, while the nascent Bangladesh Air Force flew sorties against Pakistani military bases.[16] India joined the war on 3 December 1971, after Pakistan launched preemptive air strikes on northern India. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War involved fighting on two fronts; with air supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre, and the rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Mukti Bahini and the Indian military, Pakistan surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, in what remains to date the largest surrender of armed personnel since the Second World War.[17]
Rural and urban areas across East Pakistan saw extensive military operations and air strikes to suppress the tide of civil disobedience that formed after the 1970 election stalemate. The Pakistan Army, backed by Islamists, created radical religious militias—the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams—to assist it during raids on the local populace.[18][19][20][21][22] Members of the Pakistani military and supporting militias engaged in mass murder, deportation and genocidal rape, pursuing a systematic campaign of annihilation against nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel. The capital, Dhaka, was the scene of numerous massacres, including the Dhaka University massacre. Sectarian violence also broke out between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking Biharis. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were internally displaced.[23]
The war changed the geopolitical landscape of South Asia, with the emergence of Bangladesh as the world's seventh-most populous country. Due to complex regional alliances, the war was a major episode in Cold War tensions involving the United States, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The majority of member states in the United Nations recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign nation in 1972.
^"Instrument of Surrender of Pakistan forces in Dacca". mea.gov.in. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2017. The Pakistan Eastern Command agree to surrender all Pakistan Armed Forces in Bangladesh to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding-in –chief of the Indian and Bangladesh forces in the eastern theatre.
^ abcCite error: The named reference ACIG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Pakistan & the Karakoram Highway By Owen Bennett-Jones, Lindsay Brown, John Mock, Sarina Singh, Pg 30
^Cloughley, Brian (2016) [First published 1999]. A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections (4th ed.). Simon and Schuster. pp. 149, 222. ISBN978-1-63144-039-7.
^Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 442. ISBN81-7062-014-7.
^Thiranagama, Sharika; Kelly, Tobias, eds. (2012). Traitors : suspicion, intimacy, and the ethics of state-building. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN978-0812222371.
^ abcFigures from The Fall of Dacca by Jagjit Singh Aurora in The Illustrated Weekly of India dated 23 December 1973 quoted in Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 486. ISBN81-7062-014-7.
^Figure from Pakistani Prisoners of War in India by Col S. P. Salunke p. 10 quoted in Praval, K. C. (1987). Indian Army after Independence. Lancer International. p. 485. ISBN81-7062-014-7.)
^Pg 600. Schmid, Alex, ed. (2011). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-41157-8.
^Pg. 240 Tomsen, Peter (2011). The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers. Public Affairs. ISBN978-1-58648-763-8.
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