Bangladesh War 1971
Callisa Kwiat 1st period
What Was The Bangladesh War?
In 1971, East Pakistan was upset because they were handled by West Pakistan. East Pakistan was very upset with West Pakistan, so upset West Pakistan sent the army to try to control anger. One reason they were upset is they had one the election that year but the man elected did not get any power. This caused people to start moving to India as refugees. India had to get involved when nearly 10 million refugees fled there. The refugees were forcing India to have to intervene. Many other countries got involved when India did. India greatly helped Bangladesh out. They would provide East Pakistan with guns and weapons. When India signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, in which they started giving more weapons to people. India was a great threat to West Pakistan. Pakistan even tried air strikes on India, but none did a substantial amount of damage. India then launched an air strike showing they were dominant in air strikes. India would even use missile strikes. It was a 9 month fighting period. Although, the actual war lasted 13 days. It is reported that whole villages were burnt down. Dhaka fell on December 16th bringing a short end to the war. It ended in a defeat of Western Pakistan and a new country called Bangladesh.
Indian soldiers attacking Pakistan troops.
Map of where East and West Pakistan were.
Refugees moving to India.
How Were People effected?
The people's struggle.
Many people were upset, angry, and sad. The Bangladesh government says the death count was up to 3 million. Some say this is to high. Most of them think the death count was around 500,000. Many people lost their friends and family. Some weren't able to contact their family for months. A lot of people also lost their homes and their possessions. It was a scary and upsetting time for most people.