1971
WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
BRIEF
SUMMARY:
War of Liberation, it began on 26 March 1971 and ended with the liberation of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. The armed struggle was the culmination of a series of events, situations and issues contributing to the progressively deteriorating relations between East and West Pakistan. The questions of land reforms, state language, inter-wing economic and administrative disparities, provincial autonomy, the defense of East Pakistan and many other consequential questions had been straining the relations between the two wings of Pakistan ever since independence of the country from Britain in 1947.
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The general elections of 1970 had made Bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman, chief of awami league which bagged 167 seats out of 169, the sole spokesman of the people of East Pakistan and majority leader in the Pakistan National Assembly. But the Pakistan civil and military ruling clique had refused to transfer power to the majority leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his party. Sheikh Mujib also refused to yield to the pressure put on him for undue accommodation. Sheikh Mujib's historic address on 7 March 1971 made this point quite clear to the Pakistani military junta. Then began the civil disobedience movement. Meanwhile talks started between Sheikh Mujib and President Yahya Khan to resolve the outstanding issues.
While
holding talks, the Pakistani military junta was bringing more troops to
Bangladesh, and at the same time wantonly killing innocent civilians all over
the country. This clearly showed that they were totally insincere about handing
over power to the elected representatives of East Pakistan. No sooner the talks
failed, the genocide began with the Pakistan army's crackdown on the people of
East Pakistan on the midnight of 25 March 1971. The Bangali soldiers serving in
the then Pakistan Armed Forces and para militia forces declared instantly their
solidarity with the people's liberation war.
1971 WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
Why
did the 1971 war happen?
The
conflict was a result of the Bangladesh Liberation war, when Bangladesh (then
East Pakistan) was fighting to seek freedom from (West) Pakistan. In 1971,
Pakistani Army began to commit the barbaric genocide on innocent Bengali
population, particularly the minority Hindu population in East Pakistan.
The
hostilities between India and Pakistan formally began on December 3, 1971, when
the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), launched pre-emptive air strikes on 11 Indian
airfields. Addressing the nation the same evening, PM Indira Gandhi called the
air strikes “declaration of war against India.” 4.
Who
started the 1971 war
The
hostilities between India and Pakistan formally began on December 3, 1971, when
the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), launched pre-emptive air strikes on 11 Indian
airfields. Addressing the nation the same evening, PM Indira Gandhi called the
air strikes “declaration of war against India.” 4.
1971 WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
HOW
THE WAR STARTED
The
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India's Mitro
bahini forces and Pakistan that occurred during the liberation war in East
Pakistan from 3 December 1971 to the fall of Dacca (Dhaka) on 16 December 1971.
The war began with Operation Chengiz Khan's preemptive aerial strikes on 11
Indian air stations, which led to the commencement of hostilities with Pakistan
and Indian entry into the war for independence in East Pakistan on the side of
Bengali nationalist forces. Lasting just 13 days, it is one of the shortest
wars in history.
It is estimated that members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 civilians in Bangladesh. As a result of the conflict, a further eight to ten million people fled the country to seek refuge in India.
During
the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence, members of the Pakistani military and
supporting Islamist militias called the Razakars raped between 200,000 and
400,000 Bangladeshi women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape.
DID
SOMEONE HELPED INDIA IN 1971 WAR:
Israel
helped India
in 1971 war, reveals book
India may
not have had diplomatic ties with Israel but New Delhi quietly sought and got
arms from Tel Aviv as it prepared to go to war with Pakistan in 1971, a book
has revealed. Saikat Datta reports.
The book,
1971, by scholar Srinath Raghavan offers fresh insights into the 14-day war
that led to the creation of Bangladesh.
Raghavan
accessed the PN Haksar papers maintained at the Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library in New Delhi. These papers document startling aspects of a war that is
probably India’s finest military moment but has not been documented adequately.
A diplomat, Haksar was also an adviser to the then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi.
Raghavan’s
research reveals that India’s ambassador to France DN Chatterjee began the
process to get Israeli arms with a note to the external affairs ministry on
July 6, 1971, saying assistance from Israel for “propaganda, finance and even
procurement of armament and oil” would be “invaluable”.
Gandhi
immediately accepted the proposal and through the country’s external
intelligence agency R&AW began the process to get the arms through the tiny
principality of Liechtenstein.
India
didn’t have diplomatic ties with Israel at that time, having voted against its
creation in 1948, and consistently supported the Arabs in the Israel-Palestine
conflict.
Israel was in middle of an arms shortage but prime minister Golda Meir stepped in to divert arms meant for Iran to India. She sent a note addressed to Gandhi in Hebrew through Shlomo Zabuldowicz, the director of the firm handling the secret transfers, with a request for diplomatic ties in return for arms. The diplomatic ties, however, could only be established in 1992 when Narasimha Rao was the Indian PM.
1971 WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
WHO
HELPED PAKISTAN:
Pakistan was a coward and weak country they can’t stand
against India that’s why they seek for help to other countries. A long standing
ally of Pakistan, China was encouraged by US to mobilise its armed forces along
its border with India. However, due to lack of dominant positions on the
Sino-Indian border, China demanded an immediate ceasefire.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom supplied arms
to Pakistan in these years. After Pakistani troops invaded Kashmir, India moved
quickly to internationalize the regional dispute. role in the First
India-Pakistan War and end the current conflict.
How many Pakistani soldiers died in 1971 war
At the end of the war, around 93,000 Pakistani soldiers were
captured by the allied forces. Pakistan had suffered the most number of
casualties with approximately 8000 dead and 25,000 wounded. Around 3000 Indian
soldiers died and 12,000 others were wounded in the war.
The war resulted in the independence of East Pakistan which
was then recognized as Bangladesh. It was the fourth most populous Muslim
country in the world at the time.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Prime minister-designate who was arrested after the 1970 elections, was released by Pakistan. He returned to Dhaka and became the first President of Bangladesh.
HOW MANY BRAVE INDIAN SOLDIERS MARTYRED:
The war, however, came at a price for India — nearly 3,900
Indian soldiers were killed and nearly 10,000 others injured, with many left to
suffer from life-long disabilities.
Among the Indians fighting the war were five heroes whose
unforgettable contribution led to the decisive win.
1971 WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
END OF THE WAR
On August 2, 1972 – eight months after the 13-day India-Pakistan war ended on December 16, 1971 – the two countries signed the Shimla Agreement under which India agreed to release all the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war (POW) its army had taken during the course of the war. This proved to be a controversial decision, with many in India questioning why Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had squandered a golden opportunity to bargain with Pakistan and settle the Kashmir problem on India’s terms.
What motivated Mrs Gandhi to release the POWs? What went
on behind the scenes? Were there any compelling circumstances at play that have
remained unreported? If there were any, ideally they should be brought into the
public domain, so that future generations may benefit from the lessons of
history. Since I was personally privy to these developments, as a retired
diplomat I can now tell the story, even if it has been more than 40 years since
these events transpired.
December 16, 1971 – the day when Pakistan’s armed forces laid
down their arms at a surrender ceremony in Dhaka before the joint command of
the Indian armed forces and Bangladesh’s Mukti Bahini – was the finest hour in
both India and Bangladesh’s military histories, one old and another new.
However as the two armed forces were celebrating their
military victory against an unrelenting tormentor, Mrs Gandhi was
pondering the other critical issues facing India.
1971 WAR: VICTORIOUS INDIA
FAQ
How many soldiers surrendered in 1971?
=>93,000 soldiers
India is celebrating
its victory over Pakistan in the Indo-Pak war of 1971 as Vijay Diwas. On this day in
1971, the then head of the Pakistan
Army, General Khan Niazi, along with his 93,000 soldiers, surrendered
unconditionally to the Indian Army
Why did Russia help India in 1971?
=>India supported the secession and, as a guarantee against
possible Chinese entrance into the conflict on the side of West Pakistan, it
signed with the Soviet Union the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and
Cooperation in August 1971.
Did US attack India 1971?
=>Task Force 74 was a US Navy task force of the United States Seventh Fleet that was deployed to the Bay of Bengal by the Nixon administration in December 1971, at the height of the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
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