I have given you independence, now go and preserve it.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
While speaking to Bengali Nationalist – Few hours before his arrest on the night of 25th March 1971 and Begging of a Genocide by Pakistani forces in operation Searchlight.
Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in – East Bengal Named by Pakistan East Pakistan in March 1971
On the night of 25 March 1971 the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight. Time magazine dubbed General Tikka Khan, the “Butcher of Bengal” for his role in operation Searchlight.
Robert Payne, an American journalist estimated that 7,000 people had been killed in that night
| Operation Searchlight | |
|---|---|
| Part of Bangladesh Liberation War | |
| Date26 March 1971 – 25 May 1971[1]LocationEast Pakistan (now Bangladesh)ResultTemporary West Pakistani occupationOrganization of Bengali popular resistance | |
| Belligerents | |
| Provisional Government Mukhti Bahini Awami League | Pakistan Armed Forces |
| Commanders and leaders | |
| Premier Tajuddin Ahmad Col. M. A. G. Osmani | President Yahya Khan LGen Tikka Khan LGen A.A.K Niazi MGen A.O. Mitha MGen Rao Farman Ali RAdm M. Shariff BGen William Harrison ACdre Inamul Haq |
| Strength | |
| Bengali Forces: ~8,000 Bengali soldiers from East Bengal Regiments Paramilitary Forces: East Pakistan Rifles:~13,000 soldiers and approximately 30,000+ members of East Pakistan Police and Ansar armed with .303 riflesCivilian volunteers:unknown (usually unarmed) Reinforcements: unknown number of unarmed ex-servicemen and civilians | Pakistan Army: 14th Infantry Division, estimated 18,000+ soldiers, 1 armoured regiment (75 M24 Chaffeetanks). Paramilitary Forces: ~3,000 East Pakistan Rifles, 1800 East Pakistan Police personnel Reinforcements: The 9th and 16th Infantry divisions from West Pakistan Pakistan Air Force: 20 F-86 Sabre, 3 T-33 trainers, 4 Helicopters, 5 C-130Hercules transport planes.Pakistan Navy:4 Gunboats and 1 Patrol Boat, 1 Destroyer. |
| Casualties and losses | |
| Mukti Bahini: ~4,000+POWs, 10,000 KIA(Pakistan claim)[citation needed] | ~6,000 KIA and woundeda few POWs. |
| Civilian death toll: Estimated 300,000 to 3 Million Bengali civilians. |
