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1971 Bangladesh Genocide
The 1971 Bangladesh Genocide was a series of suppressive acts of violence against hindus in East Pakistan, (now Bangladesh) starting in 1971, a time of political tensions due to the formation of Pakistan. The genocide began with Operation Searchlight on March 25, 1971, and violence has remained present until today. The genocide also was fueled by a war, sprouting from DHAKA, or better known as the protests in Bangladesh, which created bloodshed in the fight for independence from West Pakistan. During this time frame the Pakistan Army massacred hindus killing nearly three million people. The army preformed arson and raped many young hindu women. An estimated ten million people fled from the area, while an approximate thirty million people were displaced within their country. It was known that majority of the people who occupied this region were devoted Muslims. In the area of Bengal, there was a lot of division due to religion. East Pakistan became the new independent state of Pakistan. However, the Pakistan we know of today is the former western part of Pakistan. Due to the new streak of independence, there was a great amount of conflict between Western and Eastern Pakistan mainly because of the fact that they differed in their cultures, ethnicity and linguistics.

Overview
Animosity grew stronger when the Western side of Pakistan tried to make Urdu, their main language, the only language spoken in all of Pakistan. This caused much resistance from the Eastern half of Pakistan because only 7% of their population spoke this language, while the rest spoke Bengali. Though they resisted, they were strictly under the control of Western Pakistan who attempted to exterminate the Hindu learning culture, along with the Bengali language. West Pakistan even banned many works of literature and music that revolved around that sense of learning. The Awami League was created in response to all of the restrictions which were placed in order to seek out Bengalis greatest interest. It was created by a good amount of Pakistani leaders, the leader being Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. Events took a dramatic turn during the elections in 1970-1971. The Awami League won a majority of all of the East Pakistan seats within the nation assembly. Following the election unsuccessful talks were given by the Western Pakistani people. Those chain of events finally came to an end in 1971, which concluded the President of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, to ban the participation in the Awami League and postpone the national assembly session. Due to this, many of the leaders seeked refuge and fled to India. In 1971, some West Pakistani generals planned to crush the Awami League and their campaign for Bangladesh’s independence. President Yahya Khan believed that the only way to put an end to this cry for independence from West Pakistan, Pakistani troops would need to take away three million Bengali lives. He stated that this plan was the final solution to Bengal’s secession from Pakistan. On the 25th of March, 1971 troops from West Pakistan began a killing spree of innocent unarmed civilians in the capital city known as Dhaka. Victims tended to be students, professors, and Bengali police. Western Pakistani’s believed the majority of the problems regarding the liberation movement were caused by the Hindu Minorities and intellectuals of Bengali. Instead of putting an end to the fighting, on March 26th Bangladesh declared its independence and assembled an army. Unfortunately, the Bangladesh army was still very small and not well equipt, which caused the Pakistani troops to continue to enter Bangladesh. Therefore, the first six weeks of the Bangladesh Genocide is considered to be a weak counter attack to Pakistan by Bengali troops, and the mass amounts of casualties in Bangladesh. After the long period of weakness from Bangladesh, they created a larger number of guerilla troops to fight. However, the response to this from Pakistan was horrific. Pakistan began using rape as a major weapon. The troops would rape the women in their homes in front of their families, and set up rape camps. These women ranged between the ages of 8-75, and were meant to feel a great amount of trauma both mentally and physically. Many places including India supported Bangladesh which resulted in Pakistan surrendering. After the end of the long Bangladesh Genocide, Bangladesh tried to move on and forget the horrific events that took place.