1971 is a 2007 Hindi war film directed by Amrit Sagar, and written by Piyush Mishra and Amrit Sagar, based on a true story of prisoners of war after the Indo-Pak war of 1971. The film features an ensemble cast of Manoj Bajpai, Ravi Kishan, Piyush Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal and others. At the National Film Award, it won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi^[1]

The film is an account of the escape of six soldiers of the Indian Army taken as prisoners of war by Pakistan Army, during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Plot summary[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2011)

The Camp[link]

The story takes place in Pakistan in 1977, six years after the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. The scene opens to show a POW camp at an undisclosed location in Pakistan. Indian soldiers are holding a morning parade. As the Pakistanis Major Karamat and Colonel Sheriar Khan walk by, the Indians turn their backs on them in a gesture of disrespect. The cause for this disrespect is soon known as we see the Indian Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpai) being called out of barrack Number 6 for interrogation by the Pakistanis. He is from the 18 Rajputana Rifles and was caught in the Uri sector in December 1971 as he ran out of ammunition. Before being brought to this camp, he was held in Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, where he was punished twice for attempting to escape. Now, he was put in barrack Number 6 as punishment for a third attempt. Colonel Sheriar Khan taunts him as to the condition of his fellow POWs in the barracks and asks him who else aided him in his escape attempt. Major Suraj Singh refuses to reveal his accomplices, and is sent back to barrack Number 6 for a few more days. He has already spent three days there.

We see some of the other POWs; Captain Kabir (Kumud Mishra), Captain Jacob (Ravi Kishan) and Pali discussing the camp in general. They wonder why the Indians, who were so far held in various jails all over Pakistan, have been brought to this camp. They take note of the fact that the camp is well-facilitated and that they are receiving good treatment as POWs. We also see Karamat and Khan discussing the inmates of barrack Number 6. The inmates are Indian POWs from the 1965 and 1971 wars who have lost their sanity. This is Major Suraj Singh's punishment; to be imprisoned in this part of the POW camp. Out of magnanimityColonel Sheriar Khan orders that Suraj be released the next morning.

Arrival Of More POWs[link]

The next morning, an army truck is driving towards the camp. This truck has a few more Indian POWs. This group includes Flight Lieutenant Ram (Manav Kaul), Flight Lieutenant Gurtu (Deepak Dobriyal) and Colonel Puri. The Flight Lieutenants, being youngsters, are of a bright disposition, and look for something or the other to be cheerful about despite their being captive. When the truck stops at a side road and the POWs are allowed to relieve themselves, Ram and Gurtu contemplate the idea of jumping into the valley and running away. Then, they give up the idea, as they are too weak to do so. For consolation, they steal a guard's wallet and get a Pakistani army ID card.

They reach the camp and are introduced to the other inmates already present. No one has any idea as to the reason they were taken there.

Hope Against Hope[link]

Major Suraj Singh and his men, especially Captain Kabir, Captain Jacob and Subedar Ahmed, keep their own spirits alive by caring for the broken souls in barrack Number 6, and by remembering their own kin back home. No matter how good the facilities in the camp, they are still prisoners and they hope to return home someday.

By asking the guards a few innocuous questions and putting their answers together, the POWs realize that they are in a place less than 200 km from the Indo-Pak border. (The place, it is revealed later, is Chaklala.) When Colonel Puri is told of this and the idea of an escape is put forward, he overrules it. His reasons are that perhaps they will finally be repatriated and that a failed attempt could result in all of them being killed.

The Reason[link]

A jail in Multan is being examined by a joint delegation of the International Red Cross Society and the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. They are accompanied by some Indian ladies who claim that their kin are held prisoner. Their proof is that letters written by their missing kin bear the addresses of Pakistani jails. The women are being shown around by Colonel Shakoor, and they are distraught to see no trace of their loved ones here. The head of the Human Rights Commission, Sabeena Jahangir, signs a document stating that they are satisfied with the results of the search.

Here we understand the reason why the Indian POWs were brought to Chaklala: The Pakistani military/government bowed to international pressure and allowed the delegation to examine the jails. The POWs has to be hidden away in a secret camp for the duration of the delegation's visit in Pakistan.

The Repatriation And The Realization[link]

Colonel Shakoor arrives at the Chaklala camp; he informs Colonel Puri and Major Singh that all the POWs will be repatriated. He also says that as there are some formalities to be fulfilled, they will have to remain there for nearly two months. The POWs are further informed that the same night they will be treated to an open-air screening of a recent popular movie followed by a banquet. Major Singh, Captain Kabir and Subedar Ahmed are distrustful of Colonel Shakoor's words, although the other prisoners celebrate their imminent return home.

That night, while the movie is being screened, Ahmed steals a newspaper from an army jeep and calls Major Singh and Captains Kabir and Jacob into the barracks. From reading the newspaper, they learn that General Zia Ul-Haq has overthrown Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a military coup and formed a new government. Further, General Zia has stated that all Indian soldiers who were taken prisoner so far have been returned and, as proof, he has allowed the International Red Cross Society to inspect the Pakistani jails. Since no POW was found, General Zia has reasserted the Pakistani government's innocence in this matter. The four soldiers now understand the reason why they were taken to this camp. Also, that they were being provided with good facilities so that they would not think of escaping. Then, they realize that they are being overheard and discover that the eavesdroppers are Ram and Gurtu. They overpower them and are about to thrash the two, when the Flight Lieutenants inform them that they too wish to escape to India. They prove their willingness by producing the ID card they had stolen earlier.

The First Steps[link]

The six soldiers decide to escape, and they must waste no time. They take two steps the same night. First, they request the Pakistanis for a group photo. This request is granted. Second, at the dinner, Ahmed attempts to strike Jacob, for which he is punished by Colonel Puri the next morning. When Ahmed refuses to bear out his punishment, Colonel Puri wishes to court-martial him. The POWs ask for the use of a barrack to serve as a courtroom, a request that is also granted.

The Pakistanis are preparing to celebrate the Pakistani Independence Day (14 August) by having a song performance by Ms. Sultana Khanum, a ghazal singer. The Indians, who wish to celebrate the Indian Independence Day (15 August), ask for fresh uniforms, paints to make an Indian flag and jaggery for making a sweet drink. The Pakistanis grant them all their requests in order to keep them pacified.

While the court martial is going on, Ram and Gurtu combine the paints to dye the uniforms in the colours of the Pakistani Army. Maj. Karamat is presiding over the court martial. Here, with Kabir as the prosecutor and Suraj as the defense, the would-be escapees impress upon Karamat that Puri hates Ahmed simply because he is a Muslim. This prompts Karamat into starting the proceedings to implant Ahmed as a spy in the Indian Army.

Initial Success[link]

While Karamat is interviewing Ahmed to offer sending him back to India so that he can spy for the Pakistanis, Kabir and Jacob stealthily make their way to the camp periphery. They trigger the alarm and run back into the camp before they can be seen. The guards conclude that it must have been triggered by a wild animal. At this, Karamat switches off the alarm from the electricity room adjacent to his own office. Ahmed follows him like a dimwitted man and sees the location of the switch.

As Ahmed's repatriation formalities are being fulfilled, he manages to steal from Karamat's office the accessories and insignia that are present on Pakistani uniforms. Ahmed also learns that the electricity room houses the communications line and the power generator. He passes on this information to Suraj Singh and the others (Kabir, Jacob, Ram and Gurtu).

The plan is to create a stampede on the night of 14 August and escape under the pretext of escorting the ghazal singer out of the camp. But to cause a stampede, they need to detonate a bomb. For this, Ram and Gurtu go on a pickpocketing spree and bring back to Jacob (an explosives and topography expert) a lot of matchboxes. They remove the phosphorus heads of the matchsticks and make a crude bomb out of the combined match-heads. They intend to throw this bomb into the ammunitions room to create a blast. Once the bomb is ready, they tie it to the lower side of the floorboards to hide it.

The group photograph has been given to Colonel Puri. To steal it from him, Ram and Gurtu make an alcoholic drink out of the jaggery and soon many of the POWs are drunk. Colonel Puri is too drunk to notice the real reason behind the drinking session. The photo is stolen. Out of this, the face of Suraj Singh is cut out and stuck onto the stolen ID card.

The fake Pakistani uniforms are ready. So are the bomb and the ID card. The six men just have to wait for the song performance before starting their action. At this point, Suraj tells the others that the real intent of the mission is to alert the Indian authorities of the presence of Indian POWs in Pakistan. He also tells them that one or more of them may die while escaping and that their only consolation will be that they will have died as escapees instead of as prisoners.

The Breakout[link]

While the floor is being cleaned with water that morning, the bomb gets soaked, but the escape team does not know this. As 14 August dawns, the six men wear two layers of uniforms; the Indian uniforms on top of the Pakistani ones. By evening, the ghazal singer is ready to give her song performance.

The senior Pakistani officers, including Shakoor and Karamat, are among the audience. The Indian POWs are allowed to sit as a separate audience to enjoy the songs. As the performance begins, Jacob and Kabir sneak away from the main POW group at separate times. Ahmed goes into Karamat's office, telling the guard that the Major has asked for his jacket. Once inside, he knocks the guard unconscious and through a side door lets in Kabir, who has changed into his Pakistani uniform. He goes into the electricity room to disconnect the communication lines and power lines. He cuts the communication lines first, then, as per the plan, he must wait for the blast before he can cut the power line.

Jacob reaches the crude bomb and realizes that it is now soaked. He tells Ahmed, who is now by his side, that the mission must be called off. Then he rushes off to stop Suraj. However, before Ahmed can stop Kabir, he impatiently cuts the power line, plunging the camp in darkness. Ahmed does the last thing left to him to save his friends. He runs to the ammunitions room, forces his way in, locks himself in and primes one of the grenades. In the few seconds before the blast, he closes his eyes and thinks of his family; his aged parents, his wife and his daughter whom he has never seen and who would now be six. The room blows up into a ball of fire.

The remaining five men carry out the plan as conceived. There is a stampede and a general confusion as the soldiers attempt to put out the fire. Suraj and his men escort the ghazal singer out of the camp in an army truck. A few Pakistani soldiers already inside the truck become their unwitting captives. The Indians are no longer POWs, they are now soldiers on a mission.

The Aftermath[link]

At the camp, the Pakistani guards take a head count of the prisoners and, seeing six of them missing, including Suraj Singh, discover that an escape has taken place. They try to locate the truck escorting Sultana Khanum. They also alert Major Bilal Mallik (Piyush Mishra), who is in charge of a helicopter, to help in their search.

Meanwhile, the escape truck has gone on a highway to Abbottabad. At a lonely spot, the escapees decide to get rid of their captives. One of them tries to rush his captors and in a scuffle shoots Jacob in the stomach. Suraj and Kabir shoot the Pakistani dead. Jacob lies to his comrades, saying that the bullet has just grazed him. The escapees relieve the Pakistani soldiers of their weapons and wallets and knock them unconscious. They also hide the body of the dead soldier. They are about to render Sultana unconscious, when she says that she was once the head of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. She says that she was aware of the Red Cross raids across Pakistan in search of the Indian POWs. She is sympathetic to the plight of the POWs and promises to misguide the search party if she is left unharmed. In a touching line, she says to Suraj, "Hamaare mulk se thhoda yakeen hee lekar jaao." ("If nothing else, at least take home some trust from our country.")

The Night[link]

The escapees are in a different truck now. They remember the blast at the camp and understand that it was done by Ahmed. They have gone off the highway to Abbottabad and are on another one, which leads to Muzaffarabad. The search party, including Major Mallik, has reached the escape truck, where they find Sultana Khanum, who has been left unharmed. She says that the escapees were in plain clothes and were talking of going towards Islamabad. The searchers believe her and arrange for her to be sent to her home. However, Major Mallik notices that the military map is missing from the truck's dashboard. When he asks Colonel Shakoor if the escapees were in any way connected to the army, Shakoor answers that it does not matter and that the escaped prisoners have to be brought back. In the meanwhile, the Chaklala camp is hurriedly closed and the Indian POWs are moved out of there.

Major Mallik separates from the search party and heads out in his chopper to cover the highway to Muzaffarabad. At a checkpoint, the escapees, led by Suraj Singh, gain access with the help of the fake ID card. Suraj asks the guard the reason for the checkpoint and is told that there is a search on for six fugitives. From this, he understands that the Pakistanis do not want it to be known that the fugitives are actually POWs.

Sultana Khanum phones Sabeena Jahangir from a wayside hotel and informs her of the presence of Indian POWs in a camp in Chaklala. She says that she is ready to provide testimony to that effect.

By early dawn, the searchers converge at the military hospital in Abbottabad to glean information from the injured soldiers. Here, Colonel Sheriar Khan and Major Azzam Baig berate Major Karamat and Colonel Shakoor for letting the escape take place. When Major Mallik asks if the escapees are Indian POWs, they grudgingly tell him the truth, and he agrees to maintain the secrecy of the search. They then talk to an injured soldier, who tells them about the preparedness of the fugitives. When the soldier mentions that they even have an ID card, Major Mallik realizes that he had actually seen them passing through the checkpoint on the highway to Muzaffarabad. The searchers prepare to go there.

The Wild Chase At Muzaffarabad[link]

On the morning of 15 August, the escapees arrive at Muzaffarabad. The truck-driver goes on his way, and the soldiers check into a hotel. Once inside the hotel room, Suraj instructs Ram and Gurtu to purchase some necessary medical items from the local stores. He then asks Jacob to plot out an escape route on the map they took off the first escape truck. He charts out a route going up to Baramulla, India. This route avoids the main highway and goes through hills and villages. The last twenty kilometres have to be covered on foot, because the heavy snowfall makes it impossible for any vehicle to pass. Jacob then collapses and the others realize that he was not merely grazed by the bullet, but that his gunshot wound was life threatening. Kabir holds him tightly while Suraj attempts to remove the bullet from his stomach.

Meanwhile, in the town, while Ram and Gurtu are purchasing medicines and painkillers for Jacob, Ram notices a military convoy approaching. The search party is here. He and Gurtu run to the hotel to warn the others. Although they were not seen by the searchers, the place is soon swarming with soldiers. In the hotel room, Jacob finds the pain unbearable and reaches for a pistol. Ram and Gurtu reach the room just in time to see him shoot himself in the head. Although the four men are stunned, they have no time to waste. They cover Jacob in a blanket, take the map and the bags, and flee through the window.

As they run through the side streets of the town, the Pakistanis are on their heels. When the fugitives reach the main street, they have to hide behind a truck as it is crowded with soldiers led by Colonel Shakoor. They cannot remain behind the truck for long, because the column of soldiers chasing them is getting closer. Then Ram spots a motorbike, he tells Suraj and the others to be ready to take it. Before they can stop him, he runs into Colonel Shakoor's view, shoots his guard and runs into a side-lane. As the soldiers run after him, the fugitives hide themselves under the tarpaulin of another truck, thereby escaping notice by the column that was chasing them. This column joins the other soldiers in the chase. As a straggler is attempting to start the motorbike, the escapees (Suraj, Kabir and Gurtu) run out of their hiding place, beat him unconscious and ride away on it.

Ram has taken control of an army jeep after killing a few soldiers, including Major Azzam Baig. He too has sustained a few bullet injuries, and is now leading the Pakistanis away from his friends. He now has only one pistol and one grenade for weapons. He leads the soldiers out of the town as far away as he can. The chasing convoy is led by Colonel Shakoor, who is berating his men to drive faster. Major Mallik is in the second jeep. Suddenly, Major Suraj Singh turns in from a dirt road and is riding next to the leading jeep. Colonel Shakoor stares into the faces of Suraj, Gurtu and Kabir. The jeep driver's face registers terror as he sees Kabir priming a grenade. Kabir lobs the grenade into the jeep as Suraj picks up speed and races away. In the next few seconds, the convoy comes to a standstill and Colonel Shakoor leaps out of his jeep. He runs a few steps and throws himself flat on the ground. The jeep explodes as the Indians race away. A stunned Major Mallik is unable to believe his eyes. The expression on his face sums up the scene: he did not expect the Indians to pull off a move like that.

The Sacrifice[link]

The men on the bike catch up with Ram, who is relieved to see them safe. Gurtu asks innocently, "Listen, sir, is this the road to Delhi?" then tells him to watch where he is driving. But their victory is short-lived as they are attacked by a truck coming from the opposite direction. Although Kabir and Gurtu manage to shoot the driver of the truck and the shooters in its front, Suraj is forced to divert the bike into a ditch. Ram stops the jeep and watches his friends careening wildly downslope. They hit a rock and the bike cartwheels, then lands on Kabir's right leg. As the bike slides down the slope, it drags him with it. Suraj and Gurtu are lucky to survive with only a few scratches.

Ram is shot by the soldiers who are climbing out of the back of the truck. Gurtu is climbing upslope to rush to his aid with a furious Suraj attempting to stop him. Ram, still alive, sees the scene: Shakoor and Mallik have caught up and are driving towards him, the soldiers from the truck ahead are running towards him, and Gurtu and Suraj are dangerously close to revealing their position in the ditch. He quickly turns his jeep around and, with the soldiers still running after him, drives straight at Shakoor's vehicle. Mallik, seated next to Shakoor, orders the driver to stop and reverse. He is sure that Ram is playing a fresh new trick, while Shakoor wants to get closer to Ram so that he can shoot him dead. Ram slams into them at high speed, causing serious injury to Shakoor, the soldiers in Shakoor's truck and to himself. Shakoor, who is now unconscious, is laid on the ground as Mallik orders for an ambulance. Mallik then walks to Ram's jeep to see what he was trying to do.

Ram is bleeding profusely, he has a few breaths' worth of life left in him and he has primed a grenade. When Mallik sees the grenade, he shouts a warning for everyone to run away. As they all run away from the jeep, Mallik leading them, it explodes. In the ditch, Suraj and Gurtu see the explosion. Suraj covers Gurtu's mouth so that his cries cannot be heard by the men on the road. They watch the jeep and the truck go up in flames, then Suraj forcibly turns Gurtu around and they come back to the motorbike, which has Kabir still partially pinned underneath it. The blast has claimed many lives, including Colonel Shakoor's. As Mallik directs the rescue, Colonel Sheriar Khan catches up. Simultaneously, the fugitives get the bike upright and drive away.

The Intervention[link]

While Mallik and Khan are directing the rescue, Sabeena Jahangir arrives there with the Red Cross delegates and questions Khan as to his lies regarding the Indian POWs. Mallik explains that this blast was the result of an accident involving two vehicles and that they are in no way connected to the POW issue. They go to the Muzaffarabad base, where in a closed room, Colonel Sheriar Khan is informed on the phone that a delegate has been sent to recall Sabeena Jahangir. When he expresses disbelief and frustration that the POW matter is now known, Mallik tells him that catching the POWs is now difficult. He says that in addition to being highly motivated, they are also military experts. He mentions Ram's suicide bombing of the trucks as proof of how far they are willing to go. But until the arrival of the delegate, he says, Colonel Sheriar Khan must keep Jahangir pacified. When Khan attempts to tell Jahangir that there is a misunderstanding regarding the accident and the blast, she says that the occurrence of one blast at Chaklala and within one day another one at Muzaffarabad is highly suspicious. She alleges that the Pakistani military have deceived the Red Cross and the Pakistani public by lying that there are no Indian POWs in the country. Just then, the High Commission delegate arrives and shows Jahangir an order to vacate the area immediately. She glares at Mallik and Khan, then leaves with her colleagues. As soon as she is gone, the soldiers spring into action resuming their search.

Saluting Fallen Comrades[link]

However, this intervention has bought off valuable time for the escapees. They have gone on the route marked by Jacob and reached the point from where they have to go by foot. The bike is anyway out of petrol. While Suraj Singh throws the bike down a mountainside, Gurtu has leaned Kabir against a tree and is making three mounds in the snow; one for each man who died on this mission. Seeing this, Suraj points out that they sacrificed their lives for their battle, so they must be respected as martyrs. He, Kabir and Gurtu stand up and salute this memorial. Then, they walk on into the snow, Kabir being held up by the others.

The Cold Night[link]

The Indian soldiers have reached a point where they must stop and wait until dark before resuming their journey. They risk being caught if they go any further while there is still light. Suraj and Gurtu tie a splint improvised out of twigs onto Kabir's fractured leg.

By nightfall, the Pakistanis have reached a stream where they retrieve the bike that was thrown down the mountain. Khan and Mallik disagree in their conclusions. While Khan is certain that the fugitives have died and that their bodies should be lying close by, Mallik thinks that they could have thrown the bike down the mountainside and continued on foot. Khan berates Mallik for overestimating the fugitives. Mallik steps aside, and while Khan continues the search in the vicinity, gives voice to his own thoughts: "When the bloody war was over, there was never any need to detain these soldiers. Not only have we incurred the curses of their kin, we have also created a nuisance for ourselves. If I say this aloud, I will be declared a traitor. If I don't, then this Pakistani conscience of mine will torment me for life."

Suraj awakens Gurtu and Kabir to continue their journey. Kabir is not able to move his leg. Suraj removes the shoe on his injured leg only to see that it has turned black. Kabir says that it is frostbite and that it will climb up his body. However, when he requests to be left behind, Suraj will not hear of it. He carries Kabir bodily on his back, and their trek continues. They can do nothing but walk on. They keep themselves sane by exchanging little jokes and talking about their hometowns. When Suraj stumbles under Kabir's weight, Kabir points out that this way a two-hour journey will stretch to six hours. Suraj will again hear none of it. Sometime later, Kabir tells Suraj that he respects him more than he would respect his own father. Suraj replies that in the army a senior officer is like a father anyway.

Unparalleled Heroism[link]

It is dawn. The three soldiers have stopped to rest by the side of a path winding through the mountains. Kabir and Gurtu are asleep; Suraj is sitting huddled next to them. He sees something far below him in the valley. He rises, then wakes up Gurtu and asks him to take a look. They strain their eyes. They cannot believe what they are seeing. It is an Indian army outpost with the Indian Flag raised above it. They cheer, scream, and laugh in jubilation. But when Gurtu tries to rouse Kabir, he falls limply to one side. He is dead. With nothing else left to do, Suraj and Gurtu bury Kabir in the snow and walk on towards the Indian side of the border. It is about a few hundred yards away.

Suddenly they hear the sound of a helicopter. It carries Colonel Sheriar Khan and Major Bilal Mallik. As Khan fires at them with a machine gun, Mallik cautions him that they are too close to the Line Of Control (LOC). As Suraj and Gurtu attempt to run, they end up taking a few bullet wounds. Gurtu is shot in his leg, which disables him from standing up. The Indian soldiers at the outpost, who see the helicopter, think that the Pakistanis are starting a skirmish. They get ready to fire a rocket.

Gurtu crawls into a rock alcove and asks Suraj to proceed alone without him. Suraj replies that he has no family back home in India and that if he reaches home he will do so with his companions. Suraj then says that they must survive for the sake of their comrades who died in the escape and for the sake of those who are still prisoners. Meanwhile, Mallik mutinies against Khan and orders the pilot to turn the chopper around. The Indians fire a rocket at the chopper. As the helicopter turns around and flies away behind the mountains, the rocket explodes harmlessly on a mountainside. On the ground, Gurtu is unable to walk, so Suraj seats him against a rock. He promises to bring help from the Indian side.

Major Suraj Singh calls out to the Indians, but he has been a prisoner for six years. As he calls for help, his voice stammers and fails many times. The Indians simply do not or cannot hear him. Then suddenly gunshots are heard and Suraj collapses. A column of Pakistani soldiers is running towards the two fugitives. Suraj is shot badly. The Indian soldiers rush to their defensive positions. As Gurtu is still recovering from the shock, Suraj struggles to his feet. He tells Gurtu that he will be back with help even before the Pakistanis arrive. He is still the father figure his men loved him for being. The Pakistanis are rushing on, screaming obscenities. Suraj runs towards the Indian outpost. As the Pakistanis fire at him, the Indians, thinking that a skirmish is on, fire back at the Pakistanis. This pins them down considerably so their firing on Suraj does not have much effect. Then the Indian officer sees Suraj through his binoculars and orders his men to stop firing as he realizes that the Pakistanis were chasing a fugitive. Then the Pakistanis are able to come out into the open and fire at Suraj. He nevertheless runs as hard as he can. There is an explosion close to his feet, probably a land mine, and he is thrown forward to the ground by the force of the blast.

Gurtu is looking at Suraj over the distance. His face has a look of peace. Suraj has reached the Indian side. He slowly stands up and looks ahead. He is home. He looks at the soldiers and at the flag above them. He is too overcome by emotion to say even a word. The Indians see a man in Pakistani army uniform before them. Suraj raises his right hand as if reaching for the flag. Then the Pakistanis fire one shot, which goes through Suraj's heart. He falls to the ground and dies.

The Pakistani soldiers have reached the border. Khan and Mallik make their way to their head. The Indian officer shouts a question across the no-man's-land, asking what the matter is. Khan replies that the dead fugitive was a deserter from the Pakistani army who was court-martialled and had killed two civilians while escaping. He asks the Indians to search the dead man for an ID card, which should confirm his identity. The Indians find on Suraj's person the fake ID card, which had got him through the Pakistani check post. The officer grants permission for the Pakistanis to take away the corpse and warns them to be careful in future. As Suraj's body is dragged back to the Pakistani side, Mallik removes his beret in a gesture of respect to the man who, in his own way, did reach his country.

Epilogue[link]

It is now 2007. The place is Multan Jail in Pakistan. We see an old man walking in the prison compound. He has made five little mounds of earth and he is putting a few flowers on them. He sits on the ground next to them and leafs through what was once Major Suraj Singh's prison diary. This old man is Gurtu. He now has only two motives in his life: to hope to return home and to keep alive the memory of his five friends.

The screen now blurs, and a Voice over informs us that there are still 83 Indian POW's of the 1971 and the 1965 Indo Pak wars who are languishing in Pakistani Jails. They were last seen alive in 1983

Cast[link]

• Manoj Bajpai as Major Suraj Singh
• Ravi Kishan as Capt. Jacob
• Piyush Mishra as Maj. Bilal Malik
• Deepak Dobriyal as Flight Lt. Gurtu
• Chittaranjan Giri as Ahmed
• Manav Kaul as Flight Lt. Ram
• Kumud Mishra as Capt. Kabir
• Gyan Prakash as Col. Puri
• Maj. Bikramjeet Singh as Col. Shakoor
• Sanjeev Wilson as Maj. Azzam baig
• Satyajit Sharma as Commander of the Indian checkpost

References[link]

External links[link]

• 1971 at the Internet Movie Database
• A Review of 1971
• 1971 - Review
• 1971 - Preview
• 1971 Review

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Bangladesh Liberation War
Part of the Cold War
First row: A column of Mukti Bahini fighters, Pakistan Army soldiers firing mortars Second row: Indian Army troops march towards Jessore, Bengali refugees from East Pakistan fleeing to India Third row: Lt General A A K Niazi of the Pakistan Eastern Command signs the instrument of surrender over to Bangladesh-India Allied Forces, Bangladeshis celebrating the Liberation of Dhaka
Date 26 March – 16 December 1971 Location East Pakistan Result • Indian and Mukti Bahini victory against Pakistan • Subsequent independence of Bangladesh • Eastern Military High Command collapse Territorial changes East Pakistan secedes to become Bangladesh
Belligerents
Bangladesh Mukti Bahini India (joins the war on 3 December 1971)[1]	Pakistan Pakistan Defence Forces
Commanders and leaders
General M. A. G. Osmani Lt.Gen. J.S. Aurora FM Sam Manekshaw Lt.Gen. Sagat Singh Maj.Gen. JFR Jacob	LGen A.A.K. Niazi  LGen Tikka Khan RAdm M. Shariff  Air-CDRE Enamul Huq
Strength
Bangladesh Forces: 175,000[2][3] India: 250,000[2]	Pakistan Combatant Forces: ~ 365,000[2] Para Military: ~250,000[4]
Casualties and losses
Bangladesh Forces: 30,000 India: 1,426 KIA 3,611 Wounded (Official) 1,525 KIA 4,061 Wounded[5]	Pakistan ~8,000 KIA[citation needed] ~10,000 WIA[citation needed] 93,000 [6] POWs (56,694 Armed Forces 12,192 Paramilitary rest civilians)[5] [7]
Civilian death toll: Estimated between 300,000[8] and 3,000,000 [9]

The Bangladesh Liberation War⁽ⁱ⁾ (Bengali: মুক্তিযুদ্ধ Muktijuddho) was an armed conflict over a duration of about 9 months, putting East Pakistan and India against the State of Pakistan. The war started on 26 March 1971 between the State of Pakistan and East Pakistan, India intervened on 3 December 1971. Armed conflict ended on 16 December 1971 and resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh.

The war broke out when army units directed by the State of Pakistan (then controlled by West Pakistan) launched a military operation called Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan against Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, and armed personnel who were demanding for the military regime to honor the results of the first ever 1970 democratic elections in Pakistan won by an East Pakistan party or to allow separation of the East from West Pakistan. Bengali military, paramilitary, and civilians formed the Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তি বাহিনী "Liberation Army") on March 26, 1971, in response to Operation Searchlight and used guerrilla warfare tactics to fight against the West Pakistan army. India provided economic, military and diplomatic support to the Mukti Bahini rebels, leading West Pakistan to launch Operation Chengiz Khan, a pre-emptive attack on the western border of India which started the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

On 16 December 1971, the allied forces of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini defeated the West Pakistani forces deployed in the East. The resulting surrender was the largest in number of prisoners of war since World War II.

Background[link]

In August 1947, the Partition of British India gave rise to two new states;^[10] the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, the latter intended to be a homeland for the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent. The Dominion of Pakistan comprised two geographically and culturally separate areas to the east and the west of India.^[11] The western zone was popularly (and for a period of time, also officially) termed West Pakistan and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. Although the population of the two zones was close to equal, political power was concentrated in West Pakistan and it was widely perceived that East Pakistan was being exploited economically, leading to many grievances. Administration of two discontinuous territories was also seen as a challenge.^[12]

On 25 March 1971, rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by brutal^[13] suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establishment,^[14] in what came to be termed Operation Searchlight.^[15]

The violent crackdown by West Pakistan forces^[16] led to Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring East Pakistan's independence as the state of Bangladesh on 26 March 1971.^[17] Pakistani President Agha Mohammed Yahya ordered the Pakistani military to restore the Pakistani government's authority, beginning the civil war.^[17] The war led to a sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about 10 million)^[18][19] flooding into the eastern provinces of India.^[18] Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India started actively aiding and organising the Bangladeshi resistance army known as the Mukti Bahini.

Language controversy[link]

In 1948, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's first Governor-General, declared in Dhaka (then usually spelled Dacca in English) that "Urdu, and only Urdu" would be the common language for all of Pakistan.^[20] This proved highly controversial, since Urdu was a language that was only spoken in the West by Muhajirs and in the East by Biharis, although the Urdu language had been promoted as the lingua franca of Indian Muslims by political and religious leaders such as Sir Khwaja Salimullah, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk and Maulvi Abdul Haq. The language was considered a vital element of the Islamic culture for Indian Muslims; Hindi and the Devanagari script were seen as fundamentals of Hindu culture. The majority groups in the western provinces of the Dominion of Pakistan (merged in 1956 as West Pakistan) spoke Punjabi, while the Bengali language was spoken by the vast majority of East Bengalis (from 1956, East Pakistan).^[21] The language controversy eventually reached a point where East Bengal revolted while the other part of Pakistan remained calm even though Punjabi was spoken by the majority of the population of the western provinces. Several students and civilians lost their lives in a police crackdown on 21 February 1952.^[21] The day is revered in Bangladesh and in West Bengal as the Language Martyrs' Day. Later, in memory of the 1952 deaths, UNESCO declared 21 February as the International Mother Language Day in 1999.^[22]

In the western provinces, the movement was seen as a sectional uprising against Pakistani national interests^[23] and the founding ideology of Pakistan, the Two-Nation Theory.^[24] West Pakistani politicians considered Urdu a product of Indian Islamic culture,^[25] as Ayub Khan said, as late as 1967, "East Pakistanis... still are under considerable Hindu culture and influence."^[25] However, the deaths led to bitter feelings among East Bengalis, and they were a major factor in the push for independence in 1971.^[24][25]

Disparities[link]

Although East Pakistan had a larger population, West Pakistan dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget.

Bengalis were underrepresented in the Pakistan military. Officers of Bengali origin in the different wings of the armed forces made up just 5% of overall force by 1965; of these, only a few were in command positions, with the majority in technical or administrative posts.^[26] West Pakistanis believed that Bengalis were not "martially inclined" unlike Pashtuns and Punjabis; the "martial races" notion was dismissed as ridiculous and humiliating by Bengalis.^[26] Moreover, despite huge defence spending, East Pakistan received none of the benefits, such as contracts, purchasing and military support jobs. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir also highlighted the sense of military insecurity among Bengalis, as only an under-strength infantry division and 15 combat aircraft without tank support were in East Pakistan to thwart any Indian retaliations during the conflict.^[27][28]

Political differences[link]

Although East Pakistan accounted for a slight majority of the country's population,^[29] political power remained in the hands of West Pakistanis. Since a straightforward system of representation based on population would have concentrated political power in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani establishment came up with the "One Unit" scheme, where all of West Pakistan was considered one province. This was solely to counterbalance the East wing's votes.

After the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan's first prime minister, in 1951, political power began to devolve to the President of Pakistan, and eventually, the military. The nominal elected chief executive, the Prime Minister, was frequently sacked by the establishment, acting through the President.

The East Pakistanis observed that the West Pakistani establishment would swiftly depose any East Pakistanis elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, Muhammad Ali Bogra, or Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Their suspicions were further influenced by the military dictatorships of Ayub Khan (27 October 1958 – 25 March 1969) and Yahya Khan (25 March 1969 – 20 December 1971), both West Pakistanis. The situation reached a climax in 1970, when the Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the national elections. The party won 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the constitutional right to form a government. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (a Sindhi and former professor), the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, refused to allow Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan.^[30] Instead, he proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers, one for each wing. The proposal elicited outrage in the east wing, already chafing under the other constitutional innovation, the "one unit scheme". Bhutto also refused to accept Rahman's Six Points. On 3 March 1971, the two leaders of the two wings along with the President General Yahya Khan met in Dhaka to decide the fate of the country. After their discussions yielded no satisfactory results, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for a nationwide strike. Bhutto feared a civil war, therefore, he sent his trusted companion, Dr. Mubashir Hassan.^[30] A message was convened and Mujib decided to meet Bhutto.^[30] Upon his arrival, Mujib met with Bhutto and both agreed to form a coalition government with Mujib as Premier and Bhutto as President.^[30] However, the military was unaware of these developments, and Bhutto increased his pressure on Mujib to reached a decision.^[30]

On 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (soon to be the prime minister) delivered a speech at the Racecourse Ground (now called the Suhrawardy Udyan). In this speech he mentioned a further four-point condition to consider at the National Assembly Meeting on 25 March:

• The immediate lifting of martial law.
• Immediate withdrawal of all military personnel to their barracks.
• An inquiry into the loss of life.
• Immediate transfer of power to the elected representative of the people before the assembly meeting 25 March.

He urged his people to turn every house into a fort of resistance. He closed his speech saying, "Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence." This speech is considered the main event that inspired the nation to fight for its independence. General Tikka Khan was flown in to Dhaka to become Governor of East Bengal. East-Pakistani judges, including Justice Siddique, refused to swear him in.

Between 10 and 13 March, Pakistan International Airlines cancelled all their international routes to urgently fly "government passengers" to Dhaka. These "government passengers" were almost all Pakistani soldiers in civilian dress. MV Swat, a ship of the Pakistan Navy carrying ammunition and soldiers, was harboured in Chittagong Port, but the Bengali workers and sailors at the port refused to unload the ship. A unit of East Pakistan Rifles refused to obey commands to fire on the Bengali demonstrators, beginning a mutiny among the Bengali soldiers.

Response to the 1970 cyclone[link]

The 1970 Bhola cyclone made landfall on the East Pakistan coastline during the evening of 12 November, around the same time as a local high tide,^[31] killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people. Though the exact death toll is not known, it is considered the deadliest tropical cyclone on record.^[32] A week after the landfall, President Khan conceded that his government had made "slips" and "mistakes" in its handling of the relief efforts due to a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the disaster.^[33]

A statement released by eleven political leaders in East Pakistan ten days after the cyclone hit charged the government with "gross neglect, callous and utter indifference". They also accused the president of playing down the magnitude of the problem in news coverage.^[34] On 19 November, students held a march in Dhaka protesting the slowness of the government's response.^[35] Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani addressed a rally of 50,000 people on 24 November, where he accused the president of inefficiency and demanded his resignation.

As the conflict between East and West Pakistan developed in March, the Dhaka offices of the two government organisations directly involved in relief efforts were closed for at least two weeks, first by a general strike and then by a ban on government work in East Pakistan by the Awami League. With this increase in tension, foreign personnel were evacuated over fears of violence. Relief work continued in the field, but long-term planning was curtailed.^[36] This conflict widened into the Bangladesh Liberation War in December and concluded with the creation of Bangladesh. This is one of the first times that a natural event helped to trigger a civil war.^[37]

Operation Searchlight[link]

A planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistan Army – codenamed Operation Searchlight – started on 25 March to curb the Bengali nationalist movement^[38] by taking control of the major cities on 26 March, and then eliminating all opposition, political or military,^[39] within one month. Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign journalists were systematically deported from East Pakistan.^[40]

The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid-May. The operation also began the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. These systematic killings served only to enrage the Bengalis, which ultimately resulted in the secession of East Pakistan later in the same year. The international media and reference books in English have published casualty figures which vary greatly, from 5,000–35,000 in Dhaka, and 200,000–3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole,^[41] and the atrocities have been referred to as acts of genocide.^[42][43]

According to the Asia Times,^[44]

At a meeting of the military top brass, Yahya Khan declared: "Kill 3 million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands." Accordingly, on the night of 25 March, the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight to "crush" Bengali resistance in which Bengali members of military services were disarmed and killed, students and the intelligentsia systematically liquidated and able-bodied Bengali males just picked up and gunned down.

Although the violence focused on the provincial capital, Dhaka, it also affected all parts of East Pakistan. Residential halls of the University of Dhaka were particularly targeted. The only Hindu residential hall – the Jagannath Hall – was destroyed by the Pakistani armed forces, and an estimated 600 to 700 of its residents were murdered. The Pakistani army denied any cold blooded killings at the university, though the Hamood-ur-Rehman commission in Pakistan concluded that overwhelming force was used at the university. This fact and the massacre at Jagannath Hall and nearby student dormitories of Dhaka University are corroborated by a videotape secretly filmed by Prof. Nurul Ullah of the East Pakistan Engineering University, whose residence was directly opposite the student dormitories.^[45]

The scale of the atrocities was first made clear in the West when Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani journalist who had been sent to the province by the military authorities to write a story favourable to Pakistan's actions, instead fled to the United Kingdom and, on 13 June 1971, published an article in the Sunday Times describing the systematic killings by the military. The BBC wrote: "There is little doubt that Mascarenhas' reportage played its part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role", with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself stating that Mascarenhas' article has led her "to prepare the ground for India's armed intervention".^[46]

Hindu areas suffered particularly heavy blows. By midnight, Dhaka was burning,^{[citation needed]} especially the Hindu dominated eastern part of the city. Time magazine reported on 2 August 1971, "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Pakistani military hatred."

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested by the Pakistani Army. Yahya Khan appointed Brigadier (later General) Rahimuddin Khan to preside over a special tribunal prosecuting Mujib with multiple charges. The tribunal's sentence was never made public, but Yahya caused the verdict to be held in abeyance in any case.^{[citation needed]} Other Awami League leaders were arrested as well, while a few fled Dhaka to avoid arrest. The Awami League was banned by General Yahya Khan.^[47]

Declaration of independence[link]

The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on 25 March 1971, proved the last straw to the efforts to negotiate a settlement. Following these outrages, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read:

Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla.^[48][49]

Sheikh Mujib also called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a radio message.^[50] Mujib was arrested on the night of 25–26 March 1971 at about 1:30 am (as per Radio Pakistan's news on 29 March 1971).

A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bengali by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Radio Pakistan. They crossed Kalurghat Bridge into an area controlled by an East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman. Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. At 19:45 hrs on 27 March 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast the announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur. On 28 March Major Ziaur Rahman made another announcement, which was as follows:

This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla.^[51]

The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal. It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

M A Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971.^[52] There is controversy now as to when Major Zia gave his speech. BNP sources maintain that it was 26 March, and there was no message regarding declaration of independence from Mujibur Rahman. Pakistani sources, like Siddiq Salik in Witness to Surrender had written that he heard about Mujibor Rahman's message on the Radio while Operation Searchlight was going on, and Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book The 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Soldier's Narrative, gives the date of Zia's speech as 27 March 1971.^[53]

26 March 1971 is considered the official Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. In July 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly referred to the former East Pakistan as Bangladesh.^[54] Some Pakistani and Indian officials continued to use the name "East Pakistan" until 16 December 1971.

Liberation war[link]

March to June[link]

Leaflets and pamphlets played an important role in driving public opinion during the war.

At first resistance was spontaneous and disorganised, and was not expected to be prolonged.^[55] However, when the Pakistani Army cracked down upon the population, resistance grew. The Mukti Bahini became increasingly active. The Pakistani military sought to quell them, but increasing numbers of Bengali soldiers defected to the underground "Bangladesh army". These Bengali units slowly merged into the Mukti Bahini and bolstered their weaponry with supplies from India. Pakistan responded by airlifting in two infantry divisions and reorganising their forces. They also raised paramilitary forces of Razakars, Al-Badrs and Al-Shams (who were mostly members of the Muslim League, then the government party, and other Islamist groups), as well as other Bengalis who opposed independence, and Bihari Muslims who had settled during the time of partition.

On 17 April 1971, a provisional government was formed in Meherpur district in western Bangladesh bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was in prison in Pakistan, as President, Syed Nazrul Islam as Acting President, Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister, and General Muhammad Ataul Ghani Osmani as Commander-in-Chief, Bangladesh Forces. As fighting grew between the occupation army and the Bengali Mukti Bahini, an estimated 10 million Bengalis, sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.^[56]

June – September[link]

The eleven sectors

Bangladesh forces command was set up on 11 July, with Col. M. A. G. Osmani as commander-in-chief (C-in-C) with the status of Cabinet Minister, Lt. Col., Abdur Rabb as chief of Staff (COS), Group Captain A K Khandker as Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) and Major A R Chowdhury as Assistant Chief of Staff (ACOS).

General Osmani had differences of opinion with the Indian leadership regarding the role of the Mukti Bahini in the conflict. Indian leadership initially envisioned Bengali forces to be trained into a small elite guerrilla force of 8,000 members, led by the surviving East Bengal Regiment soldiers operating in small cells around Bangladesh to facilitate the eventual Indian intervention,^[57] but the Bangladesh Government in exile and General Osmani favored the following strategy:^[58][59]

• Bengali conventional force would occupy lodgment areas inside Bangladesh and then Bangladesh government would request international diplomatic recognition and intervention. Initially Mymensingh was picked for this operation, but Gen. Osmani later settled on Sylhet.
• Sending the maximum number to guerrillas inside Bangladesh as soon as possible with the following objectives:^[60][61]
  • Increasing Pakistani casualties through raids and ambush.
  • Cripple economic activity by hitting power stations, railway lines, storage depots and communication networks.
  • Destroy Pakistan army mobility by blowing up bridges/culverts, fuel depots, trains and river crafts.
  • The strategic objective was to make the Pakistanis spread their forces inside the province, so attacks could be made on isolated Pakistani detachments.

Bangladesh was divided into eleven sectors in July,^[62] each with a commander chosen from defected officers of the Pakistani army who joined the Mukti Bahini to conduct guerrilla operations and train fighters. Most of their training camps were situated near the border area and were operated with assistance from India. The 10th Sector was directly placed under the Commander in Chief (C-in-C) General M. A. G. Osmani and included the Naval Commandos and C-in-C's special force.^[63] Three brigades (11 Battalions) were raised for conventional warfare; a large guerrilla force (estimated at 100,000) was trained.^[64]

Three brigades (8 infantry battalions and 3 artillery batteries) were put into action between July - September.^[65] During June – July, Mukti Bahini had regrouped across the border with Indian aid through Operation Jackpot and began sending 2000 – 5000 guerrillas across the border,^[66] the so called Moonsoon Offensive, which for various reasons (lack of proper training, supply shortage, lack of a proper support network inside Bangladesh etc.) failed to achieve its objectives.^[67][68][69] Bengali regular forces also attacked BOPs in Mymensingh, Comilla and Sylhet, but the results were mixed. Pakistani authorities concluded that they had successfully contained the Monsoon Offensive, which proved a near-accurate observation.^[70][71]

Guerrilla operations, which slackened during the training phase, picked up after August. Economic and military targets in Dhaka were attacked. The major success story was Operation Jackpot, in which naval commandos mined and blew up berthed ships in Chittagong on 16 August 1971. Pakistani reprisals claimed lives of thousands of civilians.^{[citation needed]} The Indian army took over supplying the Mukti Bahini from the BSF. They organised six sectors for supplying the Bangladesh forces.

October – December[link]

Bangladesh conventional forces attacked border outposts. Kamalpur, Belonia and the Battle of Boyra are a few examples. 90 out of 370 BOPs fell to Bengali forces. Guerrilla attacks intensified, as did Pakistani and Razakar reprisals on civilian populations. Pakistani forces were reinforced by eight battalions from West Pakistan. The Bangladeshi independence fighters even managed to temporarily capture airstrips at Lalmonirhat and Shalutikar.^[72] Both of these were used for flying in supplies and arms from India. Pakistan sent another 5 battalions from West Pakistan as reinforcements.

Indian involvement[link]

Illustration showing military units and troop movements during the war.

Wary of the growing involvement of India, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched a pre-emptive strike on Indian Air Force bases on 3 December 1971. The attack was modelled on the Israeli Air Force's Operation Focus during the Six-Day War, and intended to neutralize the Indian Air Force planes on the ground. The strike was seen by India as an open act of unprovoked aggression. This marked the official start of the Indo-Pakistani War.

As a response to the attack, both India and Pakistan formally acknowledged the "existence of a state of war between the two countries", even though neither government had formally issued a Declaration of War.^[73]

Three Indian corps were involved in the invasion of East Pakistan. They were supported by nearly three brigades of Mukti Bahini fighting alongside them, and many more fighting irregularly. This was far superior to the Pakistani army of three divisions.^[74] The Indians quickly overran the country, selectively engaging or bypassing heavily defended strongholds. Pakistani forces were unable to effectively counter the Indian attack, as they had been deployed in small units around the border to counter guerrilla attacks by the Mukti Bahini.^[75] Unable to defend Dhaka, the Pakistanis surrendered on 16 December 1971.

The speed of the Indian strategy can be gauged by the fact that one of the regiments of the Indian army (7 Punjab, now 8 Mechanised Inf Regiment) fought the liberation war along the Jessore and Khulna axis. They were newly converted to a mechanised regiment, and it took them just one week to reach Khulna after capturing Jessore. Their losses were limited to just 2 newly acquired APCs (SKOT) from the Russians.

India's external intelligence agency, the RAW, played a crucial role in providing logistic support to the Mukti Bahini during the initial stages of the war. RAW's operation, in then East Pakistan, was the largest covert operation in the history of South Asia.

Pakistani response[link]

Pakistan launched a number of armoured thrusts along India's western front in attempts to force Indian troops away from East Pakistan. Pakistan tried to fight back and boost the sagging morale by incorporating the Special Services Group commandos in sabotage and rescue missions.^{[citation needed]}

The air and naval war[link]

The Indian Air Force carried out several sorties against Pakistan, and within a week, IAF aircraft dominated the skies of East Pakistan. It achieved near-total air supremacy by the end of the first week as the entire Pakistani air contingent in the east, PAF No.14 Squadron, was grounded because of Indian airstrikes at Tejgaon, Kurmitolla, Lal Munir Hat and Shamsher Nagar. Sea Hawks from INS Vikrant also struck Chittagong, Barisal and Cox's Bazar, destroying the eastern wing of the Pakistan Navy and effectively blockading the East Pakistan ports, thereby cutting off any escape routes for the stranded Pakistani soldiers. The nascent Bangladesh Navy (comprising officers and sailors who defected from the Pakistani Navy) aided the Indians in the marine warfare, carrying out attacks, most notably Operation Jackpot.

Surrender and aftermath[link]

On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, CO of Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. At the time of surrender only a few countries had provided diplomatic recognition to the new nation. Over 93,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces, making it the largest surrender since World War II.^[6][76] Bangladesh sought admission in the UN with most voting in its favour, but China vetoed this as Pakistan was its key ally.^[77] The United States, also a key ally of Pakistan, was one of the last nations to accord Bangladesh recognition.^[78] To ensure a smooth transition, in 1972 the Simla Agreement was signed between India and Pakistan. The treaty ensured that Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh in exchange for the return of the Pakistani PoWs. India treated all the PoWs in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention, rule 1925.^[79] It released more than 93,000 Pakistani PoWs in five months.^[6]

Further, as a gesture of goodwill, nearly 200 soldiers who were sought for war crimes by Bengalis were also pardoned by India. The accord also gave back more than 13,000 km² (5,019 sq mi) of land that Indian troops had seized in West Pakistan during the war, though India retained a few strategic areas;^[80] most notably Kargil (which would in turn again be the focal point for a war between the two nations in 1999). This was done as a measure of promoting "lasting peace" and was acknowledged by many observers as a sign of maturity by India. However, some in India^[who?] felt that the treaty had been too lenient to Bhutto, who had pleaded for leniency, arguing that the fragile democracy in Pakistan would crumble if the accord was perceived as being overly harsh by Pakistanis.

Reaction in West Pakistan to the war[link]

Reaction to the defeat and dismemberment of half the nation was a shocking loss to top military and civilians alike. No one had expected that they would lose the formal war in under a fortnight, and there was also unsettlement over what was perceived as a meek surrender of the army in East Pakistan. Yahya Khan's dictatorship collapsed and gave way to Bhutto, who took the opportunity to rise to power. General Niazi, who surrendered along with 93,000 troops, was viewed with suspicion and contempt upon his return to Pakistan. He was shunned and branded a traitor. The war also exposed the shortcomings of Pakistan's declared strategic doctrine that the "defence of East Pakistan lay in West Pakistan".^[81] Pakistan also failed to gather international support, and found itself fighting a lone battle with only the USA providing any external help. This further embittered the Pakistanis, who had faced the worst military defeat of an army in decades.

The debacle immediately prompted an enquiry headed by Justice Hamoodur Rahman. Called the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, it was initially suppressed by Bhutto as it put the military in a poor light. When it was declassified, it showed many failings from the strategic to the tactical levels. It also condemned the atrocities and the war crimes committed by the armed forces. It confirmed the looting, rapes and the killings by the Pakistan Army and their local agents although the figures are far lower than the ones quoted by Bangladesh. According to Bangladeshi sources, 200,000 women were raped and over 3 million people were killed, while the Rahman Commission report in Pakistan claimed 26,000 died and the rapes were in the hundreds. However, the army's role in splintering Pakistan after its greatest military debacle was largely ignored by successive Pakistani governments.^{[citation needed]}

Atrocities[link]

During the war there were widespread killings and other atrocities – including the displacement of civilians in Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time) and widespread violations of human rights – carried out by the Pakistan Army with support from political and religious militias, beginning with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971. Bangladeshi authorities claimed that three million people were killed,^[41] while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistan Government investigation, put the figure at 26,000 civilian casualties.^[82] The international media and reference books in English by authors and genocide scholars such as Samuel Totten have also published figures of up to 3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole,^[83] although independent researchers put the toll at 300,000 to 500,000.^[84] A further eight to ten million people fled the country to seek safety in India.^[85]

A large section of the intellectual community of Bangladesh were murdered, mostly by the Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces,^[86] at the instruction of the Pakistani Army.^[87] Just two days before the surrender, on 14 December 1971, Pakistan Army and Razakar militia (local collaborators) picked up at least 100 physicians, professors, writers and engineers in Dhaka, and murdered them, leaving the dead bodies in a mass grave.^[88] There are many mass graves in Bangladesh, with an increasing number discovered throughout the proceeding years (such as one in an old well near a mosque in Dhaka, located in the non-Bengali region of the city, which was discovered in August 1999).^[89] The first night of war on Bengalis, which is documented in telegrams from the American Consulate in Dhaka to the United States State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dhaka University and other civilians.^[90] Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war; the exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 200,000 women raped, giving birth to thousands of war babies.^[91][92][93] The Pakistan Army also kept numerous Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Dhaka Cantonment. Most of the girls were captured from Dhaka University and private homes.^[94] There was significant sectarian violence not only perpetrated and encouraged by the Pakistani army,^[95] but also by Bengali nationalists against non-Bengali minorities, especially Biharis.^[96]

On 16 December 2002, the George Washington University's National Security Archive published a collection of declassified documents, consisting mostly of communications between US embassy officials and United States Information Service centres in Dhaka and India, and officials in Washington DC.^[97] These documents show that US officials working in diplomatic institutions within Bangladesh used the terms "selective genocide"^[98] and "genocide" (see The Blood Telegram) for information on events they had knowledge of at the time). Genocide is the term that is still used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper in Bangladesh,^[99][100] although elsewhere, particularly in Pakistan, the actual death toll, motives, extent, and destructive impact of the actions of the Pakistani forces are disputed.

Foreign reaction[link]

United Nations[link]

Though the United Nations condemned the human rights violations during and following Operation Searchlight, it failed to defuse the situation politically before the start of the war.

Following Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration of independence in March 1971, India undertook a world-wide campaign to drum up political, democratic and humanitarian support for the people of Bangladesh for their liberation struggle. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi toured a large number of countries in a bid to create awareness of the Pakistani atrocities against Bengalis. This effort was to prove vital later during the war, in framing the world's context of the war and to justify military action by India.^[101] Also, following Pakistan's defeat, it ensured prompt recognition of the newly independent state of Bangladesh.

Following India's entry into the war, Pakistan, fearing certain defeat, made urgent appeals to the United Nations to intervene and force India to agree to a cease fire. The UN Security Council assembled on 4 December 1971 to discuss the hostilities in South Asia. After lengthy discussions on 7 December, the United States made a resolution for "immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops". While supported by the majority, the USSR vetoed the resolution twice. In light of the Pakistani atrocities against Bengalis, the United Kingdom and France abstained on the resolution.^[73][102]

On 12 December, with Pakistan facing imminent defeat, the United States requested that the Security Council be reconvened. Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was rushed to New York City to make the case for a resolution on the cease fire. The council continued deliberations for four days. By the time proposals were finalised, Pakistan's forces in the East had surrendered and the war had ended, making the measures merely academic. Bhutto, frustrated by the failure of the resolution and the inaction of the United Nations, ripped up his speech and left the council.^[102]

Most UN member nations were quick to recognize Bangladesh within months of its independence.^[101]

USA and USSR[link]

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The United States supported Pakistan^[103] both politically and materially. U.S. President Richard Nixon denied getting involved in the situation, saying that it was an internal matter of Pakistan, but when Pakistan's defeat seemed certain, Nixon sent the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal,^[104] a move deemed by the Indians as a nuclear threat. Enterprise arrived on station on 11 December 1971. On 6 and 13 December, the Soviet Navy dispatched two groups of ships, armed with nuclear missiles, from Vladivostok; they trailed U.S. Task Force 74 in the Indian Ocean from 18 December until 7 January 1972.

The Nixon administration provided support to Pakistani President Yahya Khan during the turmoil.

Nixon and Henry Kissinger feared Soviet expansion into South and Southeast Asia. Pakistan was a close ally of the People's Republic of China, with whom Nixon had been negotiating a rapprochement and which he intended to visit in February 1972. Nixon feared that an Indian invasion of West Pakistan would mean total Soviet domination of the region, and that it would seriously undermine the global position of the United States and the regional position of America's new tacit ally, China. In order to demonstrate to China the bona fides of the United States as an ally, and in direct violation of the US Congress-imposed sanctions on Pakistan, Nixon sent military supplies to Pakistan and routed them through Jordan and Iran,^[105] while also encouraging China to increase its arms supplies to Pakistan. The Nixon administration also ignored reports it received of the genocidal activities of the Pakistani Army in East Pakistan, most notably the Blood telegram.

The Soviet Union supported Bangladesh and Indian armies, as well as the Mukti Bahini during the war, recognising that the independence of Bangladesh would weaken the position of its rivals – the United States and China. It gave assurances to India that if a confrontation with the United States or China developed, the USSR would take countermeasures. This was enshrined in the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty signed in August 1971. The Soviets also sent a nuclear submarine to ward off the threat posed by USS Enterprise in the Indian Ocean.

At the end of the war, the Warsaw Pact countries were among the first to recognize Bangladesh. The Soviet Union accorded recognition to Bangladesh on 25 January 1972.^[106] The United States delayed recognition for some months, before according it on 8 April 1972.^[107]

China[link]

As a long-standing ally of Pakistan, the People's Republic of China reacted with alarm to the evolving situation in East Pakistan and the prospect of India invading West Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Believing that just such an Indian attack was imminent, Nixon encouraged China to mobilise its armed forces along its border with India to discourage it. The Chinese did not, however, respond to this encouragement, because unlike the 1962 Sino-Indian War when India was caught entirely unaware, this time the Indian Army was prepared and had deployed eight mountain divisions to the Sino-Indian border to guard against such an eventuality.^[73] China instead threw its weight behind demands for an immediate ceasefire.

When Bangladesh applied for membership to the United Nations in 1972, China vetoed their application^[108] because two United Nations resolutions regarding the repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of war and civilians had not yet been implemented.^[109] China was also among the last countries to recognize independent Bangladesh, refusing to do so until 31 August 1975.^[101][108]

See also[link]

• Recipients of Bangladeshi military awards in 1971
• Artistic depictions of Bangladesh Liberation War
• Timeline of the Bangladesh War
• Mukti Bahini
• Liberation War Museum
• Rape during the Bangladesh Liberation War
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Pierre Stephen and Robert Payne: Massacre, Macmillan, New York, (1973). ISBN 0-02-595240-4
• Christopher Hitchens "The Trials of Henry Kissinger", Verso (2001). ISBN 1-85984-631-9
• Library of Congress Country Studies

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

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