Since the partition of the country in 1947, the anger, pain and disappointment that had been pent up in the hearts of East Pakistanis towards West Pakistanis have been expressed. Since the partition of the country, the stepmother has been treating the East Pakistanis differently. Since then, East Pakistanis have been subjected to extreme discrimination in every aspect of life including education, business, industrialization, agriculture and so on. No sign of development has been seen. It did not take long for oppression and torture to manifest itself.

In 1970, the first elections were held in Pakistan in a fully democratic manner. In that election, the people of East Pakistan gave a unanimous verdict in favor of the undisputed leader of the Bengalis, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. President General Yahya Khan’s announcement on March 1, 1971 to postpone the session of the National Assembly (to be held in Dhaka on March 3) for an indefinite period created widespread public discontent in East Pakistan. People erupted in protests in Dhaka, Chittagong and other cities. The Pakistan government deployed the army to suppress the protests.  Hundreds of people were killed in the army firing. On the orders of Awami League chief Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a non-cooperation movement began across the country and the Pakistan government lost administrative control over the province.

At one stage, the people of East Pakistan occupied the streets with meetings and slogans, calling for a non-cooperation movement against the Pakistani administration. Knowing that the fall of the government was inevitable, the Pakistan army pounced on the unarmed East Pakistanis on the night of March 26. In one night, a brutal killing spree was carried out across the country, including Dhaka. As a result, from that night onwards, they became active in organizing the liberation war. Gradually, Bengalis took refuge in India and thousands of Bengalis participated in the Mukti Bahini and received training to build their own armed forces. Then, gradually, the entire East Pakistan became a battlefield.

The West Pakistan occupation forces became desperate to fight this war. Some traitorous anti-nationals from East Pakistan joined them to help them.  During the 1971 Liberation War, the Pakistani occupation forces and their allies carried out a brutal massacre in East Pakistan. No survey was conducted to determine how many Bengalis were killed in this massacre; however, according to an estimate immediately after the end of the Liberation War, the number of killed was estimated at around three million. This genocide by the Pakistani forces is one of the most heinous massacres in history.

Mass killing of the people in East Pakistan by the then Pakistan occupation army and their collaborators during the WAR OF LIBERATION in 1971. No definite survey has yet been made to ascertain the exact number of people killed by the Pakistan army. Immediately after the War of Liberation, it was estimated to be as high as three million. The genocide committed by the Pakistan army is one of the worst holocausts in world history.

The indefinite postponement of the scheduled session of the National Assembly (due to be held on 3 March 1971 at Dhaka) and the failure of the military government of General Yahya Khan to transfer power to the elected representatives led to widespread public resentment in East Pakistan. Protest demonstrations were held in Dhaka, Chittagong and other cities. The army resorted to open fire on demonstrating crowds in different cities and towns.

At the instance of the Awami League chief Bangabandhu SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN, civil disobedience movement was organised all over the country. The government lost grip on the administration. Genocide started with the army crackdown in Dhaka at midnight of 25 March 1971. The army cordoned Peelkhana, the headquarters of the EAST PAKISTAN RIFLES (EPR), Rajarbagh police barracks, and the Ansar headquarters at Khilgaon. More than 800 EPR men were first disarmed and arrested, and many of them were brutally killed. A few hundred of them, however, managed to escape and later joined the liberation forces.

Pakistani forces surrounded Dhaka city with tanks and other military vehicles. Truck loads of army men spread out through the city streets for stamping out all civil resistance. At midnight, the Dhaka University halls of residence and the staff quarters were attacked with tanks and armored vehicles. A number of teachers, students and officials of the University were killed. A number of buildings including some newspaper offices in Dhaka were battered with mortar shells. Many people were burnt alive in the houses set on fire. Various parts of old Dhaka, including Hindu majority Mahallas such as Shankhari Patti and Tantibazar came under mortar shells. Hundreds of inmates were gunned down. It was estimated that more than 50,000 men, women and children were killed in Dhaka, Chittagong, Jessore, Mymensingh, Kushtia and other cities within the first three days of the genocide beginning from 25 March 1971. This was termed as Operation Searchlight.

Soon the Pakistan army spread out into the remotest parts of the country. In retaliation the Bangali nationalists began to organise resistance with effect from 26 March following the declaration of independence of Bangladesh. This further intensified the military action of Pakistan government. The Pakistan army started an undeclared war against the unarmed civilians of Bangladesh. They used warplanes and gunships to contain the nationalist forces. Men, women and children of hundreds of villages, cities, and towns were killed and maimed indiscriminately. Arsoning, raping and looting knew no limit. Out of fear and intimidation, millions of Bangalis left their home and took shelter in various refugee camps set up by the Government of India along the border areas.

Initially, the world could hardly know the extent of genocide due to very strong press censorship. However, from July 1971 foreign electronic and print media started reporting various aspects and ramifications of the genocide. The United Nations also expressed their deep concern about the holocaust.

In containing the freedom fighters the Pakistan government had raised paramilitary forces with the designations of RAZAKAR, AL-BADR and AL-SHAMS. These armed forces joined the army in killing and terrorizing the people. Many people, including intellectuals of the country were lifted by them from their residence for interrogation and only a few of them returned home. They were tortured and brutally killed mostly by bayonet charges and gun-shots at the genocide camps. All these savageries were resorted to for exterminating the Mukti Bahini and their supporters. No international action was taken against the perpetrators of this most barbarous genocide according to UNO convention on genocide and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The genocide continued till the surrender of the Pakistan army on 16 December 1971.

Immediately after the declaration of independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971, the occupying Pakistani forces in Dhaka and throughout the country carried out indiscriminate massacres in the dark of night in the EPR, police forces, army barracks inside the cantonment, Ansar forces and halls of Dhaka University. Thousands of people died in this. The exact number of people killed by the Pakistani army that day is still not known. It is worth noting that the occupying forces in the then East Pakistan had been atrocities and tortures on the people for 9 long months, including killing innocent people, burning houses and looting.

West Pakistanis in particular were shown by the news that the operation was carried out because of the ‘rebellion by the East Pakistanis’ and many activities at the time were hidden from them, including rape and ethnic cleansing of East Pakistanis by the Pakistani military. In their investigation of the genocide, the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists concluded that Pakistan’s campaign also involved the attempt to exterminate or forcibly remove a significant portion of the country’s Hindu populace. Although the majority of the victims were Bengali Muslims, Hindus were especially targeted. The West Pakistani government, which had implemented discriminatory legislation in East Pakistan, asserted that Hindus were behind the Mukti Bahini (Bengali resistance fighters) revolt and that resolving the local “Hindu problem” would end the conflict—Khan’s government and the Pakistani elite thus regarded the crackdown as a strategic policy. Genocidal rhetoric accompanied the campaign: Pakistani men believed that the sacrifice of Hindus was needed to fix the national malaise. In the countryside, Pakistan Army moved through villages and specifically asked for places where Hindus lived before burning them down.[9] Hindus were identified by checking circumcision or by demanding the recitation of Muslim prayers.  This also resulted in the migration of around eight million East Pakistani refugees into India, 80–90% of whom were Hindus.

Both Muslim and Hindu women were targeted for rape. West Pakistani men wanted to cleanse a nation corrupted by the presence of Hindus and believed that the sacrifice of Hindu women was needed; Bengali women were thus viewed as Hindu or Hindu-like. The Freedom Fighters Research and Welfare Trust has prepared to take the right steps to highlight the exact number and history of the genocide organized in 1971. Since even in 55 years, no individual or organization has been seen working to take any action regarding the genocide. This is the right time that we are expressing interest in taking and implementing the project in the form of a project. Hopefully, we will be able to successfully implement this project.

Pakistan’s activities during the Bangladesh Liberation War served as a catalyst for India’s military intervention in support of the Mukti Bahini, triggering the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The conflict and the genocide formally ended on 16 December 1971, when the joint forces of Bangladesh and India received the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender. As a result of the conflict, approximately 10 million East Bengali refugees fled to Indian Territory while up to 30 million people were internally displaced out of the 70 million total population of East Pakistan. There was also ethnic violence between the Bengali majority and the Bihari minority during the conflict; between 1,000 and 150,000 Biharis were killed in reprisal attacks by Bengali militias and mobs, as Bihari collaboration with the West Pakistani campaign had led to further anti-Bihari sentiment. Since Pakistan’s defeat and Bangladesh’s independence, the title “Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh” has commonly been used to refer to the Bihari community, which was denied the right to hold Bangladeshi citizenship until 2008. Such a bloody war would be possible in your last moments, none of us can easily imagine during wartime. It is unimaginable that the world’s best warriors could be brought together in just 9 months to end the war, effectively disputing different opinions. It must be said that the brutal actions of Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War served as a catalyst for the intervention of the Indian military in support of the Mukti Bahini, and by the end of 1971, the joint forces of India and Bangladesh were able to lead Pakistan to defeat. As a result, on December 16, 1971, the joint forces of Bangladesh and India forced the Pakistani army to surrender through a counterattack.

Then, Pakistani forces were assembled in front of the joint forces of India and Bangladesh at the historic Racecourse Ground in Dhaka to sign the instrument of surrender. The signing of the surrender formally ended nine months of conflict and genocide. As a result of the conflict, about 10 million East Bengali refugees fled to Indian territory, and about 30 million people out of East Pakistan’s population of 70 million were internally displaced.

Pakistan’s activities during the Bangladesh Liberation War served as a catalyst for India’s military intervention in support of the Mukti Bahini, triggering the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The conflict and the genocide formally ended on 16 December 1971, when the joint forces of Bangladesh and India received the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender. As a result of the conflict, approximately 10 million East Bengali refugees fled to Indian Territory while up to 30 million people were internally displaced out of the 70 million total population of East Pakistan. There was also ethnic violence between the Bengali majority and the Bihari minority during the conflict; between 1,000 and 150,000 Biharis were killed in reprisal attacks by Bengali militias and mobs, as Bihari collaboration with the West Pakistani campaign had led to further anti-Bihari sentiment. Since Pakistan’s defeat and Bangladesh’s independence, the title “Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh” has commonly been used to refer to the Bihari community, which was denied the right to hold Bangladeshi citizenship until 2008.

The Freedom Fighters Research and Welfare Trust has somehow come to know that there are many noble souls, both inside and outside the country, who have fought an armed war against the Pakistanis for 9 consecutive months. Many of them were killed in the Liberation War, while many freedom fighters are still alive whose names have not been officially included anywhere. Those freedom fighters are living inhuman lives with disrespect and neglect, or are silently living their lives without government favors out of arrogance.

Many unknown people have already died, while many are still alive. But they are still living in a state of neglect because the nation does not value them properly. The Freedom Fighters Research and Welfare Trust has undertaken a project to locate those freedom fighters, both living and dead, at home and abroad. Efforts will be made to highlight their heroic deeds before the nation by finding their names and addresses and giving them due respect.

Just as the Liberation War of Bangladesh was not fought in a day, the war was not ended in just 9 months by the sole participation of men in the war. In this war, along with the participation of Bengali men, the participation of women played a very significant role. The heroic participation of women played a significant role in bringing the Liberation War to an end. It is sad but true that their heroic role, the glory of their sacrifice, and their acceptance of disability have not been presented and recognized anywhere.

It is sad to say that the women who fought bravely to free the country from the enemy have been attacked by the enemy in one way or another. Their chastity was destroyed, or many such women were raped, humiliated, and abused by enemy soldiers or Razakars. After the war, those women freedom fighters and heroines were neglected by their families and society. Society has abandoned them. Many husbands or parents have thrown them out of their homes. It is sad but true that many heroines and freedom fighters have been seen wandering on the streets without shelter; but no measures have been taken to provide them with shelter or rehabilitation. Many heroines and freedom fighters have had to commit suicide due to harassment by people on the way. MGKT is taking necessary steps to find those heroines and women freedom fighters and provide them with social rehabilitation and recognition.

The Freedom Fighters Research and Welfare Trust has already taken steps to locate those brave freedom fighters scattered across the country. Under this research project, a national database will be created by identifying neglected and helpless female freedom fighters heroines scattered across the country. Its sole purpose is to evaluate the brave women and women freedom fighters in a timely manner and improve their quality of life accordingly. Through this, a long-term plan can be adopted to provide a better and more comfortable life for every living freedom fighter.

Intro:

Bangladesh is located in South Asia and bordered by the Bay of Bengal, India, and Myanmar. The country is the 8th most populous in the world with a population of 118 million. Its most widely practiced religion is Islam, Hindu, Buddhist and Christians and Bengali is the official language, although different regions speak different dialects. The population of this country is nearly ethnically homogeneous, but some ethnic groups do live here in very small numbers. This article takes a look at the main ethnic group and some of the minorities as well.

Bengali

As previously mentioned, the population of Bangladesh is not very ethnically diverse. In fact, 98% of the people here identify as having Bengali ethnicity. The Bengali group is part of the larger Indo-Aryan ethnic group which is native to Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. They represent the third largest ethnic group in the world. Bengalis have contributed to literature, music, philosophy, architecture, and textile production since at least as early as the 4th Century BC. This group of individuals played a key role in the fight for the independence of India and eventually the independence of Bangladesh.

Bihari

Making up roughly .3% of the population is the Bihari ethnic group. Although this group speaks many languages, those living in Bangladesh tend to speak Hindi-Urdu. The Bihari descend from a long line of individuals who once made up the ancient kingdom of Magadha from which Jainism and Buddhism grew. The kingdom was later conquered by an Islamic empire and much later, British rule. In the 1940’s, Biharis participated widely in the movement for India’s independence. These individuals migrated from the East Indian state of Bihar to then East Pakistan in 1947 during the division of the country. In December of 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh, and all of the Pakistani soldiers and civilians evacuated the area. The Bihari, however, were welcomed neither in Pakistan nor in Bangladesh. They had no legal protection for Pakistani citizenship and could not make their way back to Bihar state in India. The group remains “stateless” today, with roughly 600,000 living in 66 camps across Bangladesh. Some have managed to obtain Bangladeshi citizenship and still others have been permitted into Pakistan. Those born after 1971 have automatic Bangladeshi citizenship.

Chakma

Another .3% of the population is made up of the Chakma ethnic group. They mainly populate the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a hilly area in the southeast region of the country. Within this region, the Chakma make up half of the population and divide themselves into 46 family clans. The majority of this ethnic group practices Theravada Buddhism and speaks the Chakma language which has been influenced by the Chittagonian language which is related to the Assamese language. They share a unique culture and customs that are markedly dissimilar to those held by other ethnic groups.

Meitei

The Meitei make up a very small percentage of the Bangladeshi population, comprising only 0.1%. They are also divided into several family clans and a larger population of Meitei live in Manipur in northeastern India. Their language, Meithei, comes from the Tibeto-Burman language family. In Bangladesh, the majority of the Meitei live in the Sylhet district. Common economic activities among the Meitei include the farming of oranges, tobacco, sugarcane, pineapple, and rice. Hinduism is their most practiced religion.

Other Ethnic Groups

Other minority ethnic groups living in Bangladesh, making up around 0.1% of the population each, include Khasi, Santhal, Garo, Oraon, Munda, and Rohingya.

An ethnic minority refers to a group of people within a larger population who share a distinct ethnic identity, often including cultural, linguistic, or religious characteristics, that differs from the dominant group. These groups are typically smaller in number and may face challenges in accessing resources, opportunities, or political power compared to the majority population.

According to the above description, ethnic groups have been living in Bangladesh for a long time. In 1947, India was partitioned and Pakistan was created. Since then, the oppression of Pakistanis started on all the people of this country.

Extreme discrimination began; it was not only on Bengalis; its impact spread to the entire country. The Bengalis began to protest against that oppression and oppression.

For the first time, the Freedom Fighters Research and Welfare Trust has undertaken a project to determine the exact number of members who participated in the Liberation War.

Then, members of the ethnic groups of this country also declared their solidarity with the movement and struggle. The movement and struggle against the Pakistanis ultimately culminated in a liberation struggle.

It was not only Bengalis who participated in this liberation struggle. Members of the country’s ethnic groups also participated spontaneously in that liberation war.

So during the Liberation War of 1971, members of various ethnic groups in East Pakistan actively participated in the fight for Bangladesh’s independence. While Bengalis formed the majority of the liberation forces (Mukti Bahini), other ethnic groups like tribal communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and individuals from other linguistic backgrounds also joined the struggle. The war was not just a Bengali nationalist movement, but also a fight against oppression and for self-determination, which resonated with many within the diverse population of East Pakistan.

But it is very unfortunate that no accurate information has been found so far about how many members of the ethnic group participated in the frontal war

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