• The People's Republic of Bangladesh was formed on April 17, 1971, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.
• Awami League leaders set up a government-in-exile in Calcutta, India.
• The exile government formally took oath at Meherpur, in the Kustia district of East Pakistan, on 17 April 1971, with Tajuddin Ahmad as the first Prime Minister and Syed Nazrul Islam as the Acting President.
• The Bangladesh Liberation War lasted for nine months.
• A resistance force known as the Mukti Bahini was formed from the Bangladesh Forces (consisting of Bengali regular forces) in alliance with civilian fighters such as the Kader Bahini and the Hemayet Bahini.
• Led by General M. A. G. Osmani, the Bangladesh Forces were organized into eleven sectors and, as part of Mukti Bahini, conducted a massive guerrilla war against the Pakistan Forces.
• The war witnessed the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, in which the Pakistan Army and its allied religious militias carried out a wide-scale elimination of Bengali civilians, intellectuals, youth, students, politicians, activists and religious minorities.
• By winter, Bangladesh-India Allied Forces defeated the Pakistan Army, culminating in its surrender and the Liberation of Dhaka on 16 December 1971.   
• March 25, 1971 - Dacca University students butchered
• Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Yahya Khan, ordered a crackdown on the liberation movement in the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
• Tikka Khan Khan was appointed chief martial law administrator of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
• Under Gen Tikka Khan's command, the military carried out a murderous assault on Dacca University, hotbed of the Bangladeshi liberation struggle, and the Mukti Bahini on the night of March 25, 1971, killing hundreds of youths.  
• The military carried out similar attacks in other parts of East Pakistan, killing thousands more.  
• Click on the following links to see further details:

Bangladesh Liberation War

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Butcher of Bangladesh

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