The 1971 India-Pakistan War is remembered for its rapid military campaign that led to the creation of Bangladesh. What is less remembered — but no less significant — is that India had already laid the foundations of victory months before the first shot was fired.
At the heart of this invisible front was India’s intelligence agency — Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Created only in 1968, RAW’s work in East Pakistan became one of the most defining intelligence operations in modern South Asian history. Through political subversion, guerrilla training, psychological operations, and diplomatic maneuvering, RAW systematically dismantled Pakistan’s control over its eastern wing — all without conventional warfare.
1. Laying the Political Groundwork for Bangladesh
By the late 1960s, tensions between East and West Pakistan had reached a breaking point. Despite being the demographic majority, Bengalis were marginalized in political power, military representation, and economic access. The 1970 general elections further exposed the deep fault lines: the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan — enough to form a majority government in the National Assembly. But the West Pakistani leadership, especially President Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, refused to allow Mujib to assume power.
RAW, sensing the inevitability of political rupture, began establishing covert contacts with key Awami League figures as early as 1969. According to former RAW officers and documented in B. Raman’s book,
The Kaoboys of R&AW, the agency created backchannels to Mujib’s inner circle, helped map the political sentiment across East Pakistan, and began nurturing the ideological framework of an independent Bangladesh.
This early engagement helped RAW and Indian policymakers understand the depth of Bengali nationalism — and to quietly begin preparing to support it.
2. Operation Searchlight and the Refugee Crisis
On 25 March 1971, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, a brutal crackdown on political activists, students, and civilians in Dhaka and other cities. Thousands were killed in the first week alone. What followed was one of the largest refugee crises in South Asia’s history — by mid-1971, over 10 million refugees had crossed into India.
RAW and Indian intelligence operatives collected extensive evidence of war crimes — mass graves, burned villages, and survivor testimonies. This documentation would later play a vital role in shaping international perception. More importantly, the refugee influx became a resource: RAW began screening camps for recruits, selecting able-bodied men and former servicemen to form the nucleus of a resistance force — the Mukti Bahini.
3. The Arming and Training of Mukti Bahini
Between April and November 1971, RAW, with support from the Indian Army and Border Security Force (BSF), trained over 30,000 Mukti Bahini fighters across camps in West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Assam.
Training included:
- Basic and advanced guerrilla tactics
- Sabotage and demolition
- Jungle warfare and ambush techniques
- Intelligence gathering and reconnaissance
“The Mukti Bahini softened the Pakistani defenses. They destroyed railway lines, bridges, supply depots — forcing Pakistan to overextend and weaken its own army.”
These guerrilla operations tied down Pakistan’s troops in defensive positions, disrupted logistics, and demoralized the occupying forces — all before Indian troops formally entered the war.
4. Operation Jackpot: Naval Sabotage and Economic Paralysis One of RAW’s most sophisticated successes came with Operation Jackpot, executed on 15 August 1971 — India’s Independence Day — by Mukti Bahini commandos trained by RAW and the Indian Navy.
Commandos infiltrated the ports of Chittagong, Mongla, Narayanganj, and Chandpur, attaching underwater mines to anchored Pakistani naval and merchant vessels. Over 26 ships were sunk or damaged, delivering a major blow to Pakistan’s ability to resupply its eastern garrisons.
This was not only a symbolic victory but a logistical masterstroke. By paralyzing port infrastructure, RAW ensured that Pakistan’s eastern command was both isolated and dependent on overland routes — which were vulnerable to further guerrilla disruption.
5. Intelligence Domination and Battlefield Mapping
RAW’s intelligence capabilities ensured that India had a complete picture of the battlefield before any official conflict began.
- RAW operatives infiltrated deep into East Pakistan under various covers — as refugees, journalists, and NGO workers.
- They established a network of local informants and used wireless interception to listen in on Pakistani military communications.
- Indian Eastern Command had access to detailed maps showing Pakistani troop locations, strength, morale, and supply conditions.
6. Diplomatic Psy-Ops: Winning the Narrative War While the Pakistan Army committed atrocities, RAW ensured that the world knew. The agency worked with Indian embassies abroad to distribute photographic and video evidence of mass killings and rapes. Survivors were flown to international human rights forums to testify.
RAW also:
- Facilitated foreign correspondents’ access to refugee camps and border areas.
- Created dossiers of atrocities for UN discussions, shifting global sympathy toward India and Bangladesh.
- Used its influence in global media (particularly in Sweden, the UK, and Canada) to highlight the human rights crisis.
7. Internal Destabilization of Pakistan’s Western Front Although the 1971 war focused on East Pakistan, there were limited but strategic attempts to disorient Pakistan in its western provinces.
According to Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal and some Indian intelligence memoirs, RAW made contact with Baloch nationalists and Pashtun dissidents, encouraging small-scale sabotage. The goal was not to open another front but to create paranoia and prevent the redeployment of Western Command troops to the East.
These operations — though hard to verify fully — were consistent with RAW’s broader strategy: isolate the East, distract the West, and ensure a swift collapse when India entered the conflict.
The Liberation That Began in the Shadows
The 1971 Bangladesh War is often told as a tale of military valor — and rightly so. But behind that decisive victory was a silent war: of dossiers and radio intercepts, of camps and covert training, of maps drawn in secret and ships sunk without warning.
RAW, in just three years of its existence, had engineered one of the most comprehensive and successful intelligence campaigns in Indian history.
By the time the Indian Army crossed the border, East Pakistan was already fractured:
- Militarily overextended
- Psychologically demoralized
- Diplomatically isolated
- Politically delegitimized
In the end, Bangladesh’s liberation wasn’t just won on the battlefield. It was won in the shadows — long before the world noticed.
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