Bangladesh Liberation War
Following the victory of the Awami League in the 1970 elections, then-president Gen. Yahya Khan refused to appoint its leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as prime minister and launched Operation Searchlight, using the Pakistani army to repress political activity and kill intellectuals and Hindus. Figures of people killed by Pakistani forces vary from a minimum of around 200,000 to a maximum of around 3 million. Responding to Mujib's call for rebellion, many Bengali officers and units mutinied against their West Pakistani counterparts and raised the Mukti Bahini, a guerrilla force under the leadership of Gen. Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani with active support and supplies from India. While the war raged on, the Bangladesh Navy was constituted in August 1971. Two ships and 45 navy personnel originally made up the force; they attacked Pakistani naval vessels. The Bangladesh Air Force started up on 28 September at Dimapur in Nagaland, under Air Commodore A. K. Khandker's command. While consisting of only a handful planes and one helicopter, the Air Force carried out 12 sorties against Pakistani targets.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Bangladesh
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