Md. Arafat Rahman :
Operation Searchlight was a planned genocide carried out by the Pakistani army from March 25, 1971, through which they sought to suppress the Bengali nationalist movement that took place earlier that year. The genocide angered the Bengalis resulting in revolt of Bengali officers and soldiers of the Pakistan Army. Bangladesh was declared independent and many people had to take shelter in India as refugees. This horrific genocide marked the beginning of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the Bengalis struggled to disperse the occupying Pakistani forces. As a result, independent Bangladesh was established on 16 December 1971 with the unconditional surrender of the Pakistani army to the joint command of India and Bangladesh.
Sukhranjan Dasgupta, in his book “Midnight Massacre in Dhaka”, said that after independence Tajuddin Ahmed cited him the reason for Operation Searchlight. According to a plan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will not want to be in the cabinet. Syed Nazrul Islam will be the Prime Minister, Tajuddin Ahmed will be the Home Minister and Mushtaq will be the Speaker of Parliament. Then Syed Nazrul as the Prime Minister will order the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from East Pakistan and Tajuddin will do the order. After this is done, Sheikh Mujib as the Father of the Nation will convene a session of the National Parliament in Dhaka, where he will propose the creation of an independent Bangladesh.
However, Bhutto got a glimpse of the plan. That is why on March 25, the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight under Bhutto’s direction. Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, the GOC of the 14th Division, and Major General Rao Farman Ali drew up the original plan of the operation in early March, based on a resolution adopted at a meeting of the Pakistan Armed Forces on 22 February 1971.
General Farman sets the boundaries of the operation, and the conditions of success, etc., and General Khadim oversees the work of allocating army space and specific responsibilities to different brigades and units. It was assumed that the Bengali army would revolt at the beginning of the operation, so the planners proposed to disarm the Bengali army before the operation and arrest the Bengali political leaders. Although General Hamid immediately decided to disarm the Bengali army units, he only allowed disarming the EPR, armed police and paramilitary forces.
The main goals of the operation were — 1. Operation should be started simultaneously all over East Pakistan. 2. The maximum number of leaders of political and student organizations, individuals involved in cultural organizations and teachers should be arrested. 3. Operation in Dhaka must be successful. Dhaka University should be occupied and searched. 4. All internal and international communication systems including telephone, television, radio and telegraph should be disconnected. 5. All East Pakistani (Bengali) troops must be disarmed with weapons and ammunition and 7. Yahya Khan will act to keep the Awami League busy by creating misconceptions in their minds.
The planners of Operation Searchlight needed to ensure that all concerned Pakistani unit commanders understood their responsibilities before embarking on the operation. And this work needed to be done in complete secrecy. Gathering members of the armed forces, supplying arms, bringing additional troops from West Pakistan to East Pakistan, providing details to regional commanders – all these things needed to be done without any suspicion. On March 24 and 25, a team of Pakistani generals visited the main garrisons by helicopter. In all cases, complete secrecy was maintained. Some Bengali officials were suspicious of the Pakistanis’ frequent briefings, but they had no idea what had happened at the briefings before the attack.
Commando forces led by Major Belal and Lt. Col. Z. A. Khan were able to arrest Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the beginning of the operation. Pakistani forces were also able to easily capture the EPR forces stationed in Mirpur and seize the Presidents House and the Governor’s House without any hindrance, but many managed to escape and many died.
Irregular forces of the 18th and 32nd Punjab Regiments raided the Dhaka University area by defeating the Awami League’s small-scale obstruction of volunteers and killing unarmed students in the dormitory, as well as several professors, and then on the morning of March 26 attacked the Hindu area and Old Dhaka. The police stationed at Rajarbagh, with the help of Awami League volunteers, was able to put up a formidable resistance, but was gradually defeated and most of those who survived were captured or fled.
By dawn the city was under siege and a citywide curfew was imposed. The captured Bengali soldiers and EPR and police officers were either killed or imprisoned without trial. Pakistani troops lifted the curfew for two-hours on March 27, when thousands of townspeople fled Dhaka for the village.
(Mr. Arafat is Asst. Officer, Career & Professional Development Services Department, Southeast University. E-mail: [email protected])
