Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Jama'ar Bengali sun fusata lokacin da aka hana zababben Firayim Minista Sheikh Mujibur Rahman daga karbar ofishin. Rashin biyayya na jama'a ya ɓarke a duk Gabashin Pakistan, tare da kira don 'yancin kai. Mujib ya yi jawabi a wani gangamin neman 'yanci na kusan mutane miliyan 2 a Dhaka (kamar yadda aka rubuta Dhaka a Turanci) a ranar 7 ga Maris, 1971, inda ya ce, "A wannan lokacin gwagwarmayar ita ce don' yancinmu. A wannan karon, ana gwagwarmayar neman 'yancinmu ne". An daga tutar Bangladesh a karon farko a ranar 23 ga Maris, ranar Jamhuriyar Pakistan. Daga baya, a ranar 25 ga Maris da yamma, rundunar sojan Pakistan karkashin jagorancin Yahya Khan ta kaddamar da wani hari na soja a Gabashin Pakistan a karkashin sunan Operation Searchlight. Sojojin Pakistan sun kama Sheikh Mujibur Rahman kuma suka tafi da shi zuwa Karachi. Koyaya, kafin a kama shi Mujib ya ayyana Independence of Bangladesh a tsakar dare a ranar 26 ga Maris wanda ya haifar da Yakin 'Yanci na Bangladesh ya barke cikin sa'o'i. Sojojin Pakistan sun ci gaba da kashe daliban Bengali, masu ilimi, 'yan siyasa, ma'aikatan gwamnati da' yan gudun hijirar soja a kisan kiyashin Bangladesh na 1971
, yayin da Mukti Bahini da sauran mayakan Bengali suka haifar da juriya mai ƙarfi a duk faɗin ƙasar. A lokacin yakin, kimanin mutane miliyan 0.3 zuwa 3 aka kashe kuma miliyoyin mutane sun nemi mafaka a makwabciyar Indiya. Ra'ayin jama'a na duniya ya juya kan Pakistan yayin da labarai na zalunci suka bazu; Harkar Bangladesh ta sami goyon baya daga fitattun 'yan siyasa da al'adu a Yammacin duniya, gami da Ted Kennedy, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Victoria Ocampo da André Malraux. An gudanar da waƙar don Bangladesh a Madison Square Garden a Birnin New York don tara kuɗi don 'yan gudun hijirar Bangladesh. Babban babban kide kide da aka yi a tarihi, Harrison da Ravi Shankar dan wasan sitar na Bengali na Indiya ne suka shirya shi.