Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in the erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971 , which the Pakistani state retrospectively justified on the basis of anti-Bihari violence by Bengalis in early March . Ordered by the central government in West Pakistan , this was seen as the sequel to " Operation Blitz " which had been launched in November 1970 . The original plan envisioned taking control of all of East Pakistan 's major cities on 26 March , and then eliminating all Bengali opposition , political or military , within one month . Pakistani President Yahya Khan at a conference in February 1971 said " Kill three million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands . " Prolonged Bengali resistance was not anticipated by the Pakistani military leaders . The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major Bengali-held town in mid-May . The operation also precipitated the 1971 Bangladesh genocide , in which 300,000-3,000,000 civilians were killed and roughly 10 million refugees fled to India . Bengali intelligentsia , academics and Hindus were targeted for the harshest treatment , with significant indiscriminate killing taking place . These systematic killings enraged the Bengalis , who declared independence from Pakistan , to establish the new nation of Bangladesh
1971 Bangladesh genocide
1971 Bangladesh genocide
Operation Searchlight