The
Bangladesh genocide (
Bengali: একাত্তরের গণহত্যা,
romanized:
Ekāttorer Gôṇôhôtyā,
lit. '71's genocide', Bengali: বাঙালি গণহত্যা, romanized:
Bāṅāli Gôṇôhôtyā, lit. 'Bengali genocide') was the ethnic cleansing of
Bengalis, especially
Bengali Hindus, residing in
East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) during the
Bangladesh Liberation War, perpetrated by the
Pakistan Armed Forces and the
Razakars.
[2] It began on 25 March 1971, as
Operation Searchlight was launched by
West Pakistan (now
Pakistan) to militarily subdue the Bengali population of East Pakistan; the Bengalis comprised the demographic majority and had been calling for independence from the Pakistani state. Seeking to curtail the Bengali self-determination movement, erstwhile Pakistani president
Yahya Khan approved a large-scale military deployment, and in the nine-month-long conflict that ensued, Pakistani soldiers and local pro-Pakistan militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis and
raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in a systematic campaign of
mass murder and
genocidal sexual violence.
[3]