BanglaCapsule | Bangladesh Liberation War Timeline  

1969 Student activist and student leader Amanullah Mohammad Asaduzzaman was killed in police firing and his death intensified the nature of student mass movement and turned into a mass-upsurge against the Ayub regime and its repressive measures. In many places of the country, people replaced the nameplates of Ayub Khan with the name of Shaheed Asad. In time, Ayub Gate was renamed Asad Gate, Ayub Avenue as Asad Avenue and Ayub Park as Asad Park.
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1969 General Yahya Khan, in a radio broadcast, promises the creation of ‘’conducive to the holding of general elections’’ in Pakistan.
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1971 The National Mujahid Party published a pamphlet expressing the deepest feelings of liberty and explained the necessity for East Pakistan to be independent.
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1971 Awami League called a meeting at the Racecourse ground (Shurwardi Udyan) to mark its overwhelming victory.
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1971 Yahiya Khan holds a secret meeting with Bhutto on Bangladesh, leader of the Pakistan People's Party.
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1971 Bhutto announced that the National Assembly session should be postponed. He said that the people of West Pakistan vetoed the 6-point. And threatened that if the PPP did not participate in the National Assembly session, there would be strikes called in all four provinces of West Pakistan.
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1971 Shirajul Alam Khan (the man with the idea), ASM Rab and Shajahan Shiraj of Chhatra (Student) League believed that only an armed revolution to create an independent socialist Bangladesh was the way. They demanded the indepndence of Bangladesh right away.
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1971 General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan, announced the postponement of the scheduled session of the newly elected National Assembly for an indefinite period.
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1971 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gives call for 'total non-cooperation' with the Pakistan government.
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1971 Curfew was clamped in Dhaka from 8 am to 7 pm. However, the indomitable Bangalees took to the streets. Many were gunned down by the Pakistani troops.
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1971 First flag of Bangladesh was raised at Dhaka University's Student Union.
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1971 Thousands of freedom loving Bangalees (Bengalis) took to the streets protesting the postponement of the Assembly session.
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1971 Historic 7th March: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made a clarion call for non-cooperation movement and asked the nation to prepare for the war of independence from the exploitative Pakistani regime.
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1971 Civil disobedience movement was launched. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman asked for black flags to be raised on roof-tops for a week.
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1971 Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani held a mammoth rally at Paltan Maydan extending his support to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and asked Yahiya Khan to acknowledge the independence of Bangladesh.
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1971 Leftist forces of Bangla in exile formed the Bangladesh Jatiyo Mukti Songram Somonnoy Committee (Bangladesh National Freedom Struggle Organizing Committee) with Bhasani as the leader at Beleghata, Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India.
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1971 The Bangladesh government in exile formed the All Party Advisory Committee under Bhasani's leadership. The others involved were Moni Singh (Founder of the Communist Party of Bangladesh) and Muzaffar Ahmed (NAP), Monoranjan Dhar, Tajuddin Ahmed and Khondokar Mushtaq Ahmed.
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1971 Expatriate Bengali students demonstrate in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York and calls for UN intervention to put an end to violence on Bengali people.
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1971 Japanese, German and UN workers were withdrawn from Bangladesh to their respective countries.
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1971 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent a telegram to the UN Secretary General informing him that the human rights of the Bangalees were being trampled and asked for his help in stopping the flow of arms from the west that were being used to kill Bangalee civilians.
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1971 Between 10 and 13 March, immediately before the liberation war started, Pakistan International Airlines cancelled all their international routes to urgently fly government officials to Dacca. These passengers were almost all Pakistani soldiers in civilian dress.
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1971 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman arrived at the President House hoisting a black flag to protest the horrendous massacre for the so called negotiations with Yahiya Khan and his generals in Dhaka.
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1971 After 90 minutes of heated discussion, third day of 'negotiations', with Yahiya Khan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman heard that the military had fired upon people at Tongi, Joydebpur and other places. Hearing this he found no reason to continue talks.
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1971 Nearly 50 people die as Pakistan Army opens fire on demonstrators at Jaydevpur.
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1971 The Daily Telegraph published Simon Dring's front page story of the slaughter in Dhaka that the army perpetrated in the name of 'God and a united Pakistan'.
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1971 Fourth day of 'negotiations' takes place between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Yahiya Khan and they talked for 2 hours, this time with their advisors.
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1971 Fifth day of 'negotiations' takes place between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Yahiya Khan and they talked again as thousands agitated in the streets of Bangladesh.
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1971 Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief Z. A. Bhutto came to Dhaka for 'talks' with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
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1971 Every Dhaka based newspapers come out with flag of independent Bangladesh printed on the first page.
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1971 The advisors of Yahiya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman met. Rumours abounded that Yahiya Khan would hand over power on March 25th. Bhutto and his heavy body guard stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel (Sheraton Hotel) in Dhaka.
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1971 Pakistan Army opens fire on Bengali demonstrators in Syedpur, Rangpur and Chittagong. More than a thousand people are killed.
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1971 The Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight to 'eliminate' the Awami League and its supporters in East Pakistan.
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1971 The office of The Daily Ittefaq, a daily Bangla newspaper, was burnt down by the Pakistan army.
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1971 Newspaper headlines read that 150 people were killed in various parts of the country by the armed forces. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman feared that the earlier talks with Yahiya Khan and Z. A. Bhutto were decoys.
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1971 The Pakistani military forcibly confined all foreign reporters to the Hotel Intercontinental (currently the Dhaka Sheraton) in Dhaka; that night after 11pm the military launched its genocide campaign against the Bengali civilian population.
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1971 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested by the Pakistani 3 commando unit. Independence of Bangladesh is declared by Sheikh Mujibiur Rahman few minutes before he was arrested by Pakistani army. Independence of Bangladesh was declared by Awami league leader of Chittagong M. A. Hannan on behalf of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat. This is Bangladesh's official Independence Day.
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1971 The Ramna Kali Mandir near Ramna Park, also known as the Ramna Kalibari, was one of the most famous Hindu temples of the Indian subcontinent and believed to be over a thousand years old was bulldozed by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
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1971 Independence of Bangladesh is again declared by Major Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
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1971 Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, expressed full support of her government to the freedom struggle of the Bengalis.
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1971 Kushtia resistance begins.
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1971 Jinjira massacre took place at the unions Jinjira, Kalindi and Shubhadya of Keraniganj Upazila across the Buriganga River from Dhaka when planned killing of civilians by the Pakistan army during the Bangladesh liberation War of 1971.
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1971 Archer Blood, a US diplomat based in Dhaka sent a telegram known as the 'Blood Telegram', signed by 29 American government officials and strongly dissented from the American government policy toward Pakistan.
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1971 Mujibnagar Government, the government constituted at Mujibnagar to conduct the Bangladesh war of liberation, was formed. This government has also been known as Mujibnagar Government in-exile as the activities had been conducted from outside of the territory of Bangladesh.
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1971 Tajuddin Ahmed announced in a radio address from India, the formation of a Bangladeshi government-in-exile with Syed Nazrul Islam as the acting President, himself as Prime Minister and Colonel M.A.G, Osmani as Commander-in-Chief of the Bangladeshi liberation forces.
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1971 Mujibnagar Day - Mujibnagar government took oath in Baidyanathtala (now called Mujibnagar) in Meherpur District.
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1971 First ever flag of newly independent Bangladesh was raised in a foreign mission in Calcutta, India.
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1971 Battle of Daruin, Comilla and Battle of Rangamati-Mahalchari waterway, Chittagong Hill Tracts.
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1971 Pakistan army captured 120-125 young boys from Sultanpur, Par Naogaon, Dhopapara, Ukil Para and Hat Naogaon and threw them into the river from the Lord Lytton Bridge after killing.
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1971 The Bengali independence movement appealed to the United States and China today to recognize it as the rightful government of East Pakistan.
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1971 The Operation Jackpot, codename for three operations undertaken by Bengali Mukti Bahini and Indian Army operating under the Eastern Command of the Indian Army in East-Pakistan against the Federation of Pakistan, took place.
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1971 The Pakistani army in collaboration with their local agents (Razakars, Al-Badar) brutally killed 371 persons of village Barai-Kadirpur (predominantly Hindu inhabitants) of Bamba union.
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1971 Tajuddin Ahmed appeals to neighboring countries to grant immediate recognition to Bangladesh and to give unconditional arms aid and thus help a new-born country to free itself from the clutches of a murderous army.
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1971 The Gopalpur massacre committed by the Pakistan army took place. The killing took place at Gopalpur municipality of Lalpur Upazila, Natore and the victims of the massacre were the Bengali employees of the North Bengal Sugar Mill.
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1971 The Chuknagar Genocide takes place at Khulna where the Pakistan army kills nearly 10 thousand people.
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1971 The newly formed Bangladesh Government in preparation for a war against Pakistan Army, appointed Col. M. A. G. Osmani as Commander in Chief, Lt. Col. Abdur Rab as chief of Army Staff and Group Captain A K Khandker as Deputy Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Force.
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1971 Eugen McCarthy, former U.S. Senator, declared his support today for an independent state of Bangla Desh in East Pakistan.
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1971 Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman attempts to defect by hijacking a fighter from Pakistan to join Bangladesh Liberation War.
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1971 Battle of Goahati takes place in Jessore.
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1971 Thirty eight young men from Bangladesh started marching towards Delhi from Bahrampur of Murshidabad in India with a mission to make the world aware of the Pakistani forces atrocities during the Liberation War of 1971.
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1971 Battle of Ajmiriganj, an 18-hour encounter between MB and Pakistan army, took place. A famous freedom fighter, Jagatyoti Das, is martyred.
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1971 Quite contrary to the government policy some peace loving people of US created the forum 'Americans for Bangladesh' and arranged a poetry recital program in Saint George Church, New York.
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1971 Mitro Bahini was formed as Indian and Bangladesh forces were put under a joint command structure led by Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora.
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1971 Bangladesh Air Force destroys Pakistani oil depots. Pakistani air attacks on India results in India declaring war on Pakistan.
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1971 Pakistan launches preemptive air strikes against India.
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1971 Bangladesh Air Force went to their very first action since formation and attacked the Chittagong-based Oil tank depot and oil tank depot was totally destroyed by that air attack.
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1971 India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan.
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1971 The Battle of Longewala starts which was one of the first major engagements in the western sector during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, fought between assaulting Pakistani forces and Indian defenders at the Indian border post of Longewala, in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan state in India.
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1971 The Battle of Gazipur starts. It took place at the Gazipur Tea Estate near Kulaura, in the Sylhet District. This battle was a prelude to the Battle of Sylhet.
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1971 Battle of Basantar starts in which Indians attack and take over Pakistani territory opposite Jammu.
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1971 Battle of Sylhet starts. Liberation of Jessore, Sylhet and Moulovi Bazar.
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1971 Freedom fighters freed Noakhali from Pakistani occupation forces after a bloody battle. Jessore, Sylhet and Moulovi Bazar was also liberated.
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1971 Comilla district town was freed from the Pakistan occupation forces after nine months of the war.
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1971 Operation Python: Indian naval attacks Karachi.
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1971 Battle of Kushtia: Indian attacks from West Bengal into East Pakistan.
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1971 Meghna Heli Bridge was liberated from Pakistan through an aerial operation of Indian and Bangladeshi allied forces.
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1971 Liberation of Laksham. Two Bangladeshi ships sunk mistakenly by Indian air attack.
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1971 USS Enterprise arrived on station at the Bay of Bengal sent by US president Nixon who threatened India with a nuclear strike when Pakistan's defeat seemed certain that would create sovern nation of Bangladesh.
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1971 Tangail Airdrop, which liberated Poongli Bridge on Jamuna river.
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1971 Liberation of Hilli, Mymenshingh, Kushtia and Noakhali.
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1971 Soviet Navy deploys a group of warships to counter USS Enterprise. The U.S. moves in the direction of Southeast Asia, averting a confrontation.
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1971 Soviet Navy deploys second group of ships armed with nuclear missiles from Vladivostok to counter USS Enterprise (the first batch arrived on December 6, 1971).
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1971 Pakistani occupation army and their collaborators - Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams (mostly leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student front) kidnapped frontline Bengali intellectuals and professionals and killed them to cripple the nation intellectually.
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1971 General Sam Manekshaw, Indian chief of staff, rejected Lt. General A.A.K. Niazi's call from the second week of December for ceasefire and asked him to surrender by the next day. Manekshaw also assured that safety of Pakistan's military and para-military forces would be guaranteed.
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1971 Pakistani military forces surrender to the Indian armed forces and Bangladesh becomes independent.
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1971 Many dead bodies of University professors and intellectuals were found at Rayer Bazaar's Katasur Eitkhola in Dhaka.
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1971 The head of the Bangladesh mission in the United States today proclaimed the new nation's neutrality and asked for world recognition and economic assistance.
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1971 Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee was instituted to investigate murders of intellectuals in the terminal days of the war of independence in 1971 by Al-Badr and Al-Shams.
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1971 Top member of Mujibnagar government in exile returned to the independent Bangladesh and started the rehabilitation of war-torn country.
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1971 The government decides to build a monument to commemorate the Martyrs of the Liberation War.
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1972 Triple album set 'Concert for Bangladesh' released in UK.
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1972 East Pakistan officially changed its name to Bangladesh after becoming an independent nation.
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1972 National mourning day held to show respect for those that sacrificed thier lives for the independence of Bangladesh.
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1972 Bangladesh government announced a formal plan to try some 1,100 Pakistani military prisoners including A.A.K. Niazi and Rao Forman Ali Khan for war crimes.
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1973 Through a gazette notification of the government, the insignia of Bir Srestha was conferred upon seven martyr freedom fighters (posthumously), Bir Uttam upon 68, Bir Bikram upon 175, and Bir Pratik upon 426 freedom fighters.
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2007 The remains of Birshreshtha Hamidur Rahman were brought to Bangladesh; his fellow freedom fighters buried him at Hatimarachara village of Tripurahe after was killed while fighting with Pakistani army on October 28, 1971.
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2009 America's role in opposing the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh was a 'tragic mistake', said the US Ambassador in Dhaka, James F. Moriarty at a memorial meeting for deceased Senator Edward Kennedy at the Liberation War museum. He also said 'Senator Kennedy helped my country to correct the mistake back in 1971 and we expressed that by quickly recognising Bangladesh'.
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