25 March 1971. That spring night remains one of the longest and most horrific nights in the history of the Bengali people. At a time when the ordinary people of then East Pakistan were waiting for a democratic solution, the Pakistani military junta began implementing the blueprint of a brutal massacre known as “Operation Searchlight.” It was not merely a military operation; rather, it was one of history’s most barbaric genocides, aimed at wiping out an entire nation.
After the Awami League’s historic victory in the 1970 election, the Pakistani rulers began delaying the transfer of power. On one hand, President Yahya Khan staged negotiations with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while behind the scenes General Tikka Khan and Rao Farman Ali were finalizing the plan for Operation Searchlight. The central objective of this plan was to permanently silence the Bengali people’s aspiration for freedom.
At 11:30 p.m., Pakistani forces emerged from the Dhaka cantonment with automatic weapons and tanks and spread across different parts of the city. Their first targets were pro-independence students and Bengali members of the armed forces.
[Pakistan Carried Out a Planned Genocide in the Country Under the Cover of Peace Talks]
At Dhaka University’s Jagannath Hall, Iqbal Hall (now Zahurul Haq Hall), and Rokeya Hall, hundreds of sleeping students were riddled with machine-gun fire. Renowned intellectuals were brutally murdered after soldiers stormed into the residences of university teachers.
The first bullet of resistance came from Rajarbagh Police Lines. But in the face of modern weaponry, the heroic resistance of Bengali police and EPR members eventually collapsed. Hundreds of police personnel were lined up and executed that day.
In that midnight assault, several thousand innocent people were killed in Dhaka alone in a single night. Homes and slums belonging to ordinary citizens were set ablaze. The brutality of the Pakistani forces was essentially an attempt to cripple an entire nation. Yet the river of blood that flowed that night ultimately became the driving force behind the Bengali resistance, which soon evolved into a nine-month armed struggle for independence.
