How Mukti Bahini, Partly Inspired by Che Guevera, Turned into a Battle-ready Force in 1971

With Bangladesh celebrating 50 years of Independence, an account by retired Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam on how Mukti Bahini, the Bangladesh Forces, were trained by Indian commanders. Initially formed as the Mukti Fauj or the Mukti Bahini, or simply the ‘Freedom Fighters’ when translated into English, the force primarily comprised the armed organizations that fought alongside the Indian armed forces against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. After the war ‘Mukti Bahini’ became the general term to refer to all forces of former East Pakistani origin fighting against the Pakistani armed forces during the Bangladesh liberation war. Contrary to rather far-fetched claims by Niazi that the total strength of the Mukti Bahini was over 2,50,000 trained and armed fighters, a more realistic figure pointed at a little over a two-division-sized force of regulars comprising remnants of the East Pakistan Rifles, East Bengal Regiment, civil police and around 50,000 irregulars and guerrillas trained by India to wage war on Niazi’s formations. Split into battalion groups along the three-sided border with India with specific sectors and sub-sectors assigned to each group, the Mukti Bahini initially operated through the Border Security Force sectors; they later merged effortlessly into the various Indian Army formations when they massed along the border in preparation for the final assault into East Pakistan.