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maintained the war was an internal affair.

As the independence struggle reached its climax, West Pakistan decided to internationalise the issue, realising that India might become more actively involved and that defeat was likely.

“So, their view essentially was that Bangladesh was eventually going to be liberated, but it should not be liberated through the Muktijoddhas, but through the process of a bilateral international war between India and Pakistan.”

Pakistan’s decision to initiate an open war with India on December 3 by bombing Indian airfields, he said, changed the international dynamics of the conflict.

Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman said the Soviet Union was initially non-committal to the war, but later altered its strategic positioning after the crucial mutual defence treaty with India. “The independence of Bangladesh was a unique event during that time, achieved at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, the killing of intellectuals, and through the violation of women.”

He questioned why Bangladesh, after 54 years of liberation, continues to face coups, killings and the absence of stable democratic governance. He said, “It’s high time our young researchers and academics now do the proper research and write a complete history of the Liberation War with a global perspective.”

Prof Navine Murshid of North South University’s political science department said the West Pakistanis, knowing they were losing the war, killed Bangalee intellectuals. “It has left a damaging legacy of mediocrity in education in Bangladesh.”

The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam also spoke.