On March 26, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s clarion call for independence led to Pakistan’s military dictator Gen Yahya Khan unleashing his army and local collaborators, resulting in a genocide that killed around 30 lakh people, left over two lakh women raped and drove over 10 million refugees into India.
Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led from the front and India’s defence forces fought jointly with Bangladesh’s Muktibahini in the nine-month long bloody War of Liberation. Pakistan’s army surrendered on December 16. The emergence of Bangladesh shattered the two-nation theory and redrew the map of South Asia.
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Published 03 April 2021, 23:37 IST