Two weeks after the Indian invasion of East Pakistan in support
of the independence movement there, 90,000 Pakistani troops
surrender to the Indian forces. East Pakistan was subsequently
declared the independent nation of Bangladesh. At the end of
British rule in the Indian subcontinent in 1947, East Pakistan
was declared a possession of Pakistan to the west, despite the
fact that the two regions were separated by over 1,000 miles of
Indian territory. Although the two Pakistans shared the Islamic
religion, significant cultural and racial differences existed
between the regions, and by the late 1960s East Pakistan began
to call for greater autonomy from West Pakistan. In March 1971,
the independence of Bangladesh was proclaimed and West Pakistani
forces were called in to suppress the revolt. An estimated one
million Bengalis--the largest ethnic group in Bangladesh--were
killed by the Pakistani forces during the next several months,
while over 10 million more took refuge in India. In December,
India, which had