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Operation Searchlight And The Bangladesh Genocide

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After the assault on the university, the military continued on to the countryside. Those who disagreed with the western Pakistani ideas concerning language, religion, and direction of the country would experience varying degrees of violence at the hands of the military junta. Upon entry, the junta would pillage and plunder the village houses and force the people out of their homes. Moreover, as a form of psychological terror, the military forced the people to line up in front of one another, proceeding to shoot down line after line in front of the remaining crowd. This technique was also used during the assault on the student dormitories. The mass murders had reached a point in which R.J. Rummel, author of Death by Government, goes as far to …show more content…

At the beginning of the genocide following the start of Operation Searchlight and the attack on Dhaka University there was mass confusion and hysteria among the people. All over, Eastern Pakistan people were wandering aimlessly and in April around thirty million had started to flee in order to escape the grasp of the military. Ten million refugees went into India and overwhelmed the country's resources, which eventually became a catalyst for Indian military intervention. It is worthy to note that a large number of these refugees were Hindu. Additionally, the influx of the Bengali people in India was estimated to be 10 million refugees and it is estimated that 1.5 million stayed in India after Bangladesh gained its independence (GenocideBangladesh). This increase in refugees resulted in a mix of cultures as well. Consequently, this was a negative impact on East Pakistan, and subsequently Bangladesh, for the long term because their intellectuals had fled, depriving them of ideas, new thoughts, and innovation, and proper leadership that could have led them to a higher position in the world today due to the absence of these important people in that time (GenocideBangladesh). Due to the systematic raping of women throughout the country, a large number of females were forced to bear children that they did not want. This was mentally scarring and physically draining to these women and their families. Not to forget that, in the Middle East, it is socially taboo for a women to have sex out of wedlock, leading to her being ignored and shunned in public and by her own kin. Also due to the unwanted pregnancies, those affected would sometimes resort to extreme solutions such as suicide by rat poison and other means, such as infanticide, as well as abortion (Ahmed). Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men,

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