Bengali genocide

1971 Bangladesh genocide
Part of the Bangladesh Liberation War
Rayerbazar killing field photographed immediately after the war started, showing bodies of Bengali nationalist intellectuals (Image courtesy: Rashid Talukdar, 1971)
Location	East Pakistan
Date	21 March – 16 December 1971 (8 months, 2 weeks and 3 days)
Target	Bengali
Attack type	Deportation, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocidal rape
Deaths	Estimated between 300,000 to 3,000,000
Perpetrators	Pakistan Armed Forces Shanti committee Razakars Al-Badr Al-Shams

Coordinates: 23°N 90°E / 23°N 90°E / 23; 90

The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight, as West Pakistan began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination rights. During the nine-month-long Bangladesh war for independence, members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat-e-Islami killed up to 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women, according to Bangladeshi and Indian sources, in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Independent researchers estimate the number of people killed as being between 300,000–500,000, and describe the 3 million number as excessively inflated. The actions against women were supported by Muslim religious leaders, who declared that Bengali women were gonimoter maal (Bengali for "public property"). As a result of the conflict, a further eight to ten million people, mostly Hindus,fled the country at the time to seek refuge in neighbouring India. It is estimated that up to 30 million civilians became internally displaced. During the war there was also ethnic violence between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking Biharis. Non-Bengalis were also killed by Bengalis during the war.