The
Bangladesh Liberation War started on 26 March 1971 and ended on 16 December 1971. Some of the major events of the war are listed in the
timeline below.
Timeline
Interactive Timeline of the Bangladesh Liberation War
Before the war
1 March:
General Yahya Khan calls off the session of National Council to be held on 3 March in a radio address.[1]
19 March: Nearly 200 people are injured at Jaydevpur during clashes between protesters and the
Pakistan Army.[3]
24 March: The Pakistan Army opens fire on Bengali protesters in Syedpur and Rangpur. About 150 people are killed.[4]
Events during the War
March
25 March to 26 March: Pakistan Army starts crackdown in the form of
Operation Searchlight in
Dhaka and the rest of the country, attacking general civilians, political activists, students, and Bengali members of armed forces and police.[5]
26 March: At 1.15 am,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested by the Pakistani 3 commando unit.[6][7][8][9] The Independence of Bangladesh is declared by Sheikh Mujibiur Rahman a few minutes before he was arrested by the Pakistani army. At 2.30 pm The Independence of Bangladesh was declared by Awami league leader of Chittagong M. A. Hannan on behalf of Bangobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat. This is Bangladesh's official Independence Day.
27 March: Independence of Bangladesh is again declared by Maj.
Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.[9][10]Santahar massacre committed by the Mukhti Bahini
13 October: Dhaka guerrillas kill
Abdul Monem Khan, governor of East Pakistan.
28 October to 3 November:
Battle of Dhalai in which 3 companies (215 soldiers) of the Jat Regiment (2 JAT) of Indian Army defeated a battalion (800 soldiers) of 30th Frontier Force Rifles (30 FFR) of Pakistan Army.[14][15][16]Hamidur Rahman of
Mukti Bahini was posthumously awarded the
Bir Sreshtho, the highest recognition of bravery in Bangladesh.[17]
31 October to 3 November:
Battle of Dhalai: Allied attack from
Tripura into East Pakistan to stop Pakistani cross-border shelling.
November
9 November: Six small ships constitute the first fleet of
Bangladesh Navy.
14 November to 4 December: The
Battle of Kamalpur began, where Pakistani troops defended Kamalpur for 21 days before being ordered to surrender by their superiors.[18][19]
Bangladesh Liberation War Library and Research Centre, a Digital Library, working to 'preserve and publicly distribute' the historical documents regarding the Liberation War of Bangladesh and Genocide of Innocent Bengali People in 1971.
^Gupta, Jyoti Sen (1974). History of freedom movement in Bangladesh, 1943–1973. Naya Prokash. p. 278.
OCLC891183528. It was past midnight ... the Pakistani Major looked up at Begum Mujib and said: 'Sorry, we are taking him away'.
^Khan, Fazal Muqueem (1973). Pakistan's Crisis in Leadership. National Book Foundation. p. 72.
OCLC976643179. Sheikh Mujib was arrested from his residence in Dhan Mandi at 0130 hours
^Singh, Sukhwant (1980). India's Wars Since Independence. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. p. 190.
ISBN0-7069-1057-5.
^Cloughley, Brian (2006) [First published 1999]. A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 179.
ISBN978-0-19-547334-6.
^ মুক্তিযুদ্ধে বিমান [Airplanes of liberation war]. Prothom Alo (in Bengali). 25 December 2009.