1971 BRDC International Trophy
The 23rd BRDC International Trophy meeting - formally the GEN/Daily Express BRDC International Trophy - was held on 8 May 1971 at the Silverstone Circuit, England. The race was run to Formula One and Formula 5000 regulations, and was held over two heats of 26 laps each, the final results being an aggregate of the two. Graham Hill emerged the winner in the unique Brabham BT34 lobster-claw car, designed by Ron Tauranac. It would be the two-time World Champion's last victory in a Formula One race.


1971 BRDC International Trophy
The 1971 event was also notable as one of the few competitive outings for the Lotus 56 gas turbine car. However, suspension failure on only the third lap of the first heat resulted in early retirement for driver Emerson Fittipaldi, although the car held together for long enough to take third place in the second heat.


1971 BRDC International Trophy
The race incorporated Round 5 of the 1971 Rothmans European Formula 5000 Championship.


1971 BYU Cougars football team
The 1971 BYU Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Brigham Young University in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. In their eighth and final season under head coach Tommy Hudspeth, the Cougars compiled a 5–6 record (3–4 against WAC opponents), finished fourth in the WAC, and outscored opponents by a total of 227 to 199.


1971 BYU Cougars football team
Pete Van Valkenburg led the team with 602 rushing yards, 684 yards of total offense, and 48 points scored. Other statistical leaders included Bill August with 448 passing yards, Golden Richards with 238 receiving yards, and Dave Atkinson with nine interceptions.


1971 Balkans Cup
The 1971 Balkans Cup was an edition of the Balkans Cup, a football competition for representative clubs from the Balkan states. It was contested by 6 teams and Panionios won the trophy.


1971 Ball State Cardinals football team
The 1971 Ball State Cardinals football team was an American football team that represented Ball State University as an Independent during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. In its first season under head coach Dave McClain, the team compiled a 4–5–1 record. The team played its home games at Ball State Stadium in Muncie, Indiana.


1971 Ballon d'Or
The 1971 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from UEFA member countries, was awarded to Johan Cruyff on 28 December 1971.


1971 Ballon d'Or
Cruyff was the first Dutch national to win the award, and also the first Ajax player to win the trophy.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
The Balmoral Furniture Company bombing was a paramilitary attack that took place on 11 December 1971 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A bomb exploded without warning outside a furniture showroom on the Shankill Road in a predominantly unionist area, killing four civilians, two of them babies. It is widely believed that the bombing was carried out by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in retaliation for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) bombing of McGurk's Bar a week earlier, which killed 15 Catholic civilians.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
The bombing happened on a Saturday when the Shankill was crowded with shoppers, creating bedlam in the area. Hundreds of people rushed to help British Army troops and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) rescue survivors trapped under the rubble of the devastated building. According to journalist Peter Taylor, the bomb site was "reminiscent of the London Blitz" during World War II.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
The attack provoked much anger in the tight-knit Ulster Protestant community and many men later cited the bombing as their reason for joining one of the two main Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisations: the illegal UVF or the then-legal Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Four such men were Tommy Lyttle, Michael Stone, Sammy Duddy, and Billy McQuiston.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing
The bombing was one of the catalysts that sparked the series of tit-for-tat bombings and shootings by loyalists, republicans and the security forces that made the 1970s the bloodiest decade in the 30-year history of the Troubles.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
At 12.25 pm on 11 December 1971, when the Shankill Road was packed with Saturday shoppers, a green car pulled up outside the Balmoral Furniture Company at the corner of Carlow Street and Shankill Road. The shop was locally known as "Moffat's" although Balmoral Furniture Company was its official name. One of the occupants got out, leaving a box containing a bomb on the step outside the front door. The person got back into the car and it sped away. The bomb exploded moments later, bringing down most of the building on top of those inside the shop and on passersby outside.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
Four people were killed as a result of the massive blast, including two babies—Tracey Munn (2) and Colin Nichol (17 months)—who both died instantly when part of the wall crashed down upon the pram they were sharing. Two employees working inside the shop were also killed: Hugh Bruce (70) and Harold King (29). Unlike the other three victims, who were Protestant, King was a Catholic. Bruce, a former soldier and a Corps of Commissionaires member, was the shop's doorman and was nearest to the bomb when it exploded. Nineteen people were injured in the bombing, including Tracey's mother. The building, which was built in Victorian times, had load-bearing walls supporting upper floors on joists. It was thus unable to withstand the blast and so collapsed, adding to the devastation and injury count.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
The bombing caused bedlam in the crowded street. Hundreds of people rushed to the scene where they formed human chains to help the British Army and RUC free those trapped beneath the rubble by digging with their bare hands. Peter Taylor described the scene as "reminiscent of the London Blitz" in World War II. One witness was Billy McQuiston, who had been walking down the Shankill with a friend when they heard the blast. Rushing to the scene, McQuiston later recounted what he saw and felt upon reaching the wrecked building:


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
Women were crying. Men were trying to dig out the rubble. Other men were hitting the walls. One person was crying beside you and the next person was shouting 'Bastards' and things like that. I didn't actually see the babies' bodies as they had them wrapped in sheets, but the blood was just coming right through them. They were just like lumps of meat, you know, small lumps of meat. All these emotions were going through you and you wanted to help. There were people shouting at the back, "Let's get something done about this".


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
To be perfectly honest with you, I just stood there and cried, just totally and utterly numb. It wasn't until I got back home that I realised, this isn't a game. There's a war going on here. These people are trying to do us all in. They're trying to kill us all and they don't care who we are or what age we are. Because we're Protestants, they are going to kill us so we're going to have to do something here.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, The bombing
The angry crowd at the scene shared McQuiston's dismay and anger against the IRA, whom they automatically held responsible for the bombing. They also sought to retaliate against any Catholic they happened upon. A Protestant man nearby made a remark about the bombing, and someone who overheard it mistook the speaker for a Catholic and shouted out: "He's Catholic!" A mob of about one hundred men and women ran towards him and began kicking and punching him until he was left unconscious. It took the RUC and British troops half an hour to rescue him from his attackers.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Although nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, the Provisional IRA was immediately and widely blamed. In his book Loyalists, Peter Taylor explained that the Provisional IRA bombed Balmoral in retaliation for the McGurk's Bar bombing one week earlier, which had killed 15 Catholic civilians. This theory is supported by author Susan McKay. Billy McQuiston, along with many other Protestant men who had been on the Shankill at the time of the explosion, immediately joined the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Others included Sammy Duddy, Michael Stone, and Tommy Lyttle.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Lyttle, who became brigadier of the UDA West Belfast Brigade, was not there but his wife and two daughters were near the bomb when it went off. They received no injuries, but his daughter Linda said that Lyttle "took it personally". Jackie McDonald, the incumbent South Belfast UDA brigadier, worked as dispatches manager for the Balmoral Furniture Company. The leader of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF, the name the UDA used to claim attacks), John White,  who was convicted of the double murder of Senator Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews in 1973, used the Balmoral bombing as justification for these killings and others.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Within a month of the bombing, the UDA had restructured, adopting a more military structure and establishing a thirteen-member Security Council under Charles Harding Smith to co-ordinate activity.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Michael Stone would go on to perpetrate the Milltown Cemetery attack in 1988, which was caught on camera. Another Protestant man, Eddie Kinner, had been at the scene following the explosion. He lived around the corner from Balmoral. He sought revenge against the IRA and later joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
He later spoke about his reactions to the Balmoral bombing in an interview with Peter Taylor: "On that occasion, if somebody had handed me a bomb to plant it anywhere you want in the Falls, I would have done it", adding that he had no qualms about taking somebody else's life. Within a week of the attack, the UVF retaliated by planting a bomb at Murtagh's Bar on the Irish nationalist Springfield Road in west Belfast. A 16-year-old Catholic barman, James McCallum, was killed.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
The building which housed Balmoral's Furniture Company was formerly "Wee Joe's Picture House", dating from the 1930s. Taking its name from "Wee" Joe McKibben, one of three owners of the cinema (which was nicknamed the "Wee Shank"), it was said locally that it cost a jam jar to get in on account of the fact that patrons could go to McKibben's other place of business, a grocery shop, and swap an empty jam jar for a ticket to the cinema. The edifice was demolished after the bombing.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Although a youth on the Shankill had seen the green car and person who planted the device, the bombers were never apprehended nor was anyone ever charged in connection with the attack. The McGurk's Bar bombing was the catalyst that sparked a series of tit-for-tat bombings and shootings by loyalist and republican paramilitaries that would help make the 1970s the bloodiest decade in the 30-year history of the Troubles.


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
The Balmoral bombing was not the first paramilitary attack in the Shankill Road area. On 29 September 1971, the Four Steps Inn pub had been bombed by the Provisional IRA, resulting in the deaths of two men. It would not be the last either. In August 1975, the Provisional IRA carried out a shooting and bombing attack against the Bayardo Bar on Aberdeen Street, which killed three men and two women - one aged 17. A deadlier attack took place on 23 October 1993 when a two-man IRA unit from Ardoyne carried a bomb into Frizzell's Fish Shop on the Shankill. The device detonated prematurely, killing one of the bombers and ten of the customers (see Shankill Road bombing).


1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Aftermath
Balmoral as a company was also established as a target by this attack and in October 1976 its premises in Dunmurry were blown up in another bomb attack. There were no casualties. Three IRA volunteers were arrested not far from the scene of this attack with one, Bobby Sands, imprisoned for possessing a gun as a result. Sands' fellow hunger striker, Joe McDonnell, was also arrested following this incident. Sands and McDonnell had jointly planned the bomb attack.


1971 Baltimore Colts season
The 1971 Baltimore Colts season was the 19th season for the team in the National Football League. Led by second-year head coach Don McCafferty, the Colts appeared to be on the verge of winning the AFC East again after beating the Miami Dolphins 14–3 in the penultimate game of the regular season. However, the Colts lost the final game of the season at home to the New England Patriots, dropping them to 10–4 and the wild card berth. They lost to the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game. The Baltimore defense gave up a total of 140 points for 14 regular season (10 PPG) & in their four defeats, they lost by 15 points total.


1971 Baltimore Colts season
This was the final season under the ownership of Carroll Rosenbloom, who traded franchises with the Los Angeles Rams in July 1972, with players and coaching staffs remaining intact.


1971 Baltimore Colts season, Regular season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1971 Baltimore Colts season, Postseason
The team made it to the playoffs as a No. 4 seed and traveled to Cleveland to play the Cleveland Browns in the divisional round. The Colts led 14–0 at the half and would cruise to a 20–3 win. They then traveled south to play the Miami Dolphins and tried to make it to their second consecutive Super Bowl. Colts QB Johnny Unitas was intercepted three times as they were shut out 21–0.


1971 Baltimore Orioles season
In 1971, the Baltimore Orioles finished first in the American League East, with a record of 101 wins and 57 losses. As of 2016, the 1971 Orioles are one of only two Major League Baseball clubs (the 1920 Chicago White Sox being the other) to have four 20-game winners in a season: Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson.


1971 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1971 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1971 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1971 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1971 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1971 Baltimore mayoral election
The 1971 Baltimore mayoral election saw the election of William Donald Schaefer.


1971 Bandy World Championship
The 1971 Bandy World Championship was the seventh Bandy World Championship and was contested between four men's Bandy playing nations. The championship was played in Sweden from 3–14 March 1971. The Soviet Union became champions.


1971 Bangladesh genocide
The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight, as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the East Pakistan wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination. During the nine-month-long Bangladesh Liberation War, members of the Pakistan Armed Forces and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami killed between 200,000 and 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women, according to Bangladeshi and Indian sources, in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Pakistan rejected the claims and termed it as propaganda against the Pakistan Army.


1971 Bangladesh genocide
The actions against women were supported by Pakistan's religious leaders, who declared that Bengali women were gonimoter maal (Bengali for "public property"). As a result of the conflict, a further eight to ten million people, mostly Hindus, fled the country to seek refuge in neighbouring India. It is estimated that up to 30 million civilians were internally displaced out of 70 million. During the war, there was also ethnic violence between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking Biharis. Biharis faced reprisals from Bengali mobs and militias, and from 1,000 to 150,000 were killed.


1971 Bangladesh genocide
There is an academic consensus that the events which took place during the Bangladesh Liberation War constituted a genocide; however, there are some scholars and authors who deny that the killing was a genocide.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
Following the partition of India, the new state of Pakistan represented a geographical anomaly, with two wings separated by 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) of Indian territory. The wings were not only separated geographically, but also culturally. The authorities of the West viewed the Bengali Muslims in the East as "too 'Bengali'" and their application of Islam as "inferior and impure", believing this made the Bengalis unreliable "co-religionists". To this extent politicians in West Pakistan began a strategy to forcibly assimilate the Bengalis culturally.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
The Bengali people were the demographic majority in Pakistan, making up an estimated 75 million in East Pakistan, compared with 55 million in the predominantly Punjabi-speaking West Pakistan. The majority in the East were Muslim, with large minorities of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. The West considered the people of the East to be second-class citizens, and Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, who served as head of the Pakistani Forces in East Pakistan in 1971, referred Bengalis not equal to the level of Pathans and Punjabis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
In 1948, a few months after the creation of Pakistan, Governor-General Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu as the national language of the newly formed state, although only four per cent of Pakistan's population spoke Urdu at that time. He branded those who supported the use of Bengali as communists, traitors and enemies of the state. The refusal by successive governments to recognise Bengali as the second national language culminated in the Bengali language movement and strengthened support for the newly formed Awami League, which was founded in the East as an alternative to the ruling Muslim League.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
A 1952 protest in Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, was forcibly broken up, resulting in the deaths of several protesters. Bengali nationalists viewed those who had died as martyrs for their cause, and the violence led to calls for secession. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 caused further grievances, as the military had assigned no extra units to the defence of the East. This was a matter of concern to the Bengalis who saw their nation undefended in case of Indian attack during the conflict of 1965, and that Ayub Khan, the dictator-ruler of Pakistan, was willing to lose the East if it meant gaining Kashmir.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
The slow response to the Bhola cyclone which struck on 12 November 1970 is widely seen as a contributing factor in the December 1970 general election. The East Pakistan-based Awami League, headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a national majority in the first democratic election since the creation of Pakistan, sweeping East Pakistan. But, the West Pakistani establishment prevented them from forming a government. President Yahya Khan, encouraged by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, banned the Awami League and declared martial law. The Pakistani Army demolished Ramna Kali Mandir (temple) and killed 85 Hindus. On 22 February 1971, General Yahya Khan is reported to have said "Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
Some Bengalis supported a united Pakistan and opposed secession from it. According to Indian academic Sarmila Bose, these pro-Pakistan Bengalis constituted a significant minority, and included the Islamic parties. Moreover, many Awami League voters who hoped to achieve provincial autonomy may not have desired secession. Additionally, some Bengali officers and soldiers remained loyal to the Pakistani Army and were taken as prisoners of war by India along with other West Pakistani soldiers. Thus, according to Sarmila Bose, there were many pro-regime Bengalis who killed and persecuted the pro-liberation fighters.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Background
Sydney Schanberg reported the formation of armed civilian units by the Pakistani Army in June 1971. Only a minority of the recruits were Bengali while most were Biharis and Urdu speakers. The units with local knowledge played an important role in the implementation of the Pakistani Army's genocide. American writer Gary J. Bass believes that the breakup of Pakistan was not inevitable, identifying 25 March 1971 as the point where the idea of a united Pakistan ended for Bengalis with the start of military operations. According to John H. Gill, since there was widespread polarisation between pro-Pakistan Bengalis and pro-liberation Bengalis during the war, those internal battles are still playing out in the domestic politics of modern-day Bangladesh.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistani Army to curb elements of the separatist Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan in March 1971. The Pakistani state justified commencing Operation Searchlight on the basis of anti-Bihari violence by Bengalis in early March. Ordered by the government in West Pakistan, this was seen as the sequel to Operation Blitz which had been launched in November 1970. On 1 March 1971 East Pakistan governor Admiral Syed Mohammed Ahsan was replaced after disagreeing with military action in East Pakistan. His successor Sahibzada Yaqub Khan resigned after refusing to use soldiers to quell a mutiny and disagreement with military action in East Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
According to Indian academic Sarmila Bose, the postponement of the National Assembly on 1 March led to widespread lawlessness spread by Bengali protesters during the period of 1–25 March, in which the Pakistani government lost control over much of the province. Bose asserts that during this 25-day period of lawlessness, attacks by Bengalis on non-Bengalis were common as well as attacks by Bengalis on Pakistani military personnel who, according to Bose and Anthony Mascarenhas, showed great restraint until 25 March, when Operation Searchlight began. Bose also described the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army in her book. According to Anthony Mascarenhas, the actions of the Pakistani Army compared to the violence by Bengalis was "altogether worse and on a grander scale".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
On the night of 25 March 1971 the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight. Time magazine dubbed General Tikka Khan, the "Butcher of Bengal" for his role in Operation Searchlight. Targets of the operation included Jagannath Hall which was a dormitory for non-Muslim students of Dhaka University, Rajarbagh Police Lines, Pilkhana, which is the headquarters of East Pakistan Rifles. About 34 students were killed in the dormitories of Dhaka University. Neighbourhoods of old Dhaka which had a majority Hindu population were also attacked. Robert Payne, an American journalist, estimated that 7,000 people had been killed and 3,000 arrested in that night. Teachers of Dhaka University were killed in the operation by the Pakistani Army. Sheikh Mujib was arrested by the Pakistani Army on 25 March. Ramna Kali Mandir was demolished by the Pakistani Army in March 1971.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
The original plan envisioned taking control of the major cities on 26 March 1971, and then eliminating all opposition, political, or military, within one month. The prolonged Bengali resistance was not anticipated by Pakistani planners. The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid May. The countryside still remained almost evenly contested.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
The first report of the Bangladesh genocide was published by West Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas in The Sunday Times, London on 13 June 1971 titled "Genocide". He wrote: "I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot off-hand after a cursory 'short-arm inspection' showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of the Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
I have seen truckloads of other human targets and those who had the humanity to try to help them hauled off 'for disposal' under the cover of darkness and curfew." This article helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and decisively encouraged the Government of India to intervene. On 2 August 1971, Time magazine correspondent sent a dispatch that provided detailed description of the Pakistani army-led destruction in East Pakistan. It wrote that cities have whole sections damaged from shelling and aerial bombardments.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
The dispatch wrote: "In Dhaka, where soldiers set sections of the Old City ablaze with flamethrowers and then machine-gunned thousands as they tried to escape the cordon of fire, nearly 25 blocks have been bulldozed clear, leaving open areas set incongruously amid jam-packed slums." It quoted a senior US official as saying "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Operation Searchlight
Archer K. Blood, American diplomat wrote in the Blood Telegram: "with support of the Pak military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people's quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
On the high end, Bangladeshi authorities claim that as many as 3 million people were killed; the lowest estimate comes from the controversial Hamoodur Rahman Commission, the official Pakistani government investigation, which claimed the figure was 26,000 civilian casualties. The figure of 3 million has become embedded in Bangladeshi culture and literature. Sayyid A. Karim, Bangladesh's first foreign secretary alleges that the source of the figure was Pravda, the news-arm of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Independent researchers have estimated the death toll to be around 300,000 to 500,000 people while others estimate the casualty figure to be 3 million. The United States intelligence agency, the CIA and the State Department estimated that 200,000 people had been killed in the genocide.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
According to Sarmila Bose's controversial book Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, the number lies somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000. However, her book was the subject of strong criticism by journalists; writer and visual artist Naeem Mohaiemen; Nayanika Mookherjee, an anthropologist at Durham University; and others.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
In 1976 the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh undertook a comprehensive population survey in Matlab, Noakhali where a total of 868 excess wartime deaths were recorded; this led to an estimated overall excess number of deaths in the whole of Bangladesh of nearly 500,000.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
Based on this study, the British Medical Journal in 2008, conducted a study by Ziad Obermeyer, Christopher J. L. Murray, and Emmanuela Gakidou which estimated that 125,000–505,000 civilians died as a result of the conflict; the authors note that this is far higher than a previous estimate of 58,000 by Uppsala University and the Peace Research Institute, Oslo. This figure is supported by the statements of Bangladeshi author Ahmed Sharif in 1996, who added that "they kept the truth hidden for getting political advantages".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
American political scientists Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose give a low-end estimate of 300,000 dead, killed by all parties, and they deny that a genocide occurred, while American political scientist R. J. Rummel estimated that about 1.5 million people were killed in Bangladesh. Indian journalist Nirmal Sen claims that the total number killed was about 250,000 and among them, about 100,000 were Bengalis and the rest were Biharis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
Many of those killed were the victims of radical religious paramilitary militias formed by the West Pakistani Army, including the Razakars, Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces. There are many mass graves in Bangladesh, and more are continually being discovered (such as one in an old well near a mosque in Dhaka, located in the Mirpur region of the city, which was discovered in August 1999). The first night of war on Bengalis, which is documented in telegrams from the American Consulate in Dhaka to the United States State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dhaka University and other civilians.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Estimated killed
On 16 December 2002, the George Washington University's National Security Archive published a collection of declassified documents, consisting mostly of communications between US embassy officials and USIS centres in Dhaka and India, and officials in Washington, D.C. These documents show that US officials working in diplomatic institutions within Bangladesh used the terms selective genocide and genocide (see Blood telegram) to describe events they had knowledge of at the time. The complete chronology of events as reported to the Nixon administration can be found on the Department of State website.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Islamist militias
The Jamaat-e-Islami party as well as some other pro Pakistani Islamists opposed the Bangladeshi independence struggle and collaborated with the Pakistani state and armed forces out of Islamic solidarity. According to political scientist Peter Tomsen, Pakistan's secret service, in conjunction with the political party Jamaat-e-Islami, formed militias such as Al-Badr ("the moon") and the Al-Shams ("the sun") to conduct operations against the nationalist movement. These militias targeted noncombatants and committed rapes as well as other crimes. Local collaborators known as Razakars also took part in the atrocities. The term has since become a pejorative akin to the western term "Judas".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Islamist militias
Members of the Muslim League, Nizam-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, who had lost the election, collaborated with the military and acted as an intelligence organisation for them. Jamaat-e-Islami members and some of its leaders collaborated with the Pakistani forces in rapes and targeted killings. The atrocities by Al-Badr and the Al-Shams garnered worldwide attention from news agencies; accounts of massacres and rapes were widely reported.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Killing of intellectuals
During the war, the Pakistani Army and its local collaborators, mainly Jamaat e Islami carried out a systematic execution of the leading Bengali intellectuals. A number of professors from Dhaka University were killed during the first few days of the war. However, the most extreme cases of targeted killing of intellectuals took place during the last few days of the war.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Killing of intellectuals
Professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers and writers were rounded up by the Pakistani Army and the Razakar militia in Dhaka, blindfolded, taken to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city to be executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. Allegedly, the Pakistani Army and its paramilitary arm, the Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces created a list of doctors, teachers, poets, and scholars.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Killing of intellectuals
During the nine-month duration of the war the Pakistani Army, with the assistance of local collaborators, systematically executed an estimated 991 teachers, 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, artists and engineers. Even after the official ending of the war on 16 December there were reports of killings being committed by either the armed Pakistani soldiers or by their collaborators. In one such incident, notable filmmaker Jahir Raihan was killed on 30 January 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by armed Beharis. In memory of the people who were killed, 14 December is observed in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Killing of intellectuals
Notable intellectuals who were killed from the time period of 25 March to 16 December 1971 in different parts of the country include Dhaka University professors Dr. Govinda Chandra Dev (philosophy), Dr. Munier Chowdhury (Bengali literature), Dr. Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury (Bengali Literature), Dr. Anwar Pasha (Bengali Literature), Dr M Abul Khair (history), Dr. Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta (English literature), Humayun Kabir (English literature), Rashidul Hasan (English literature), Ghyasuddin Ahmed, Sirajul Haque Khan, Faizul Mahi, Dr Santosh Chandra Bhattacharyya and Saidul Hassan (physics), Rajshahi University professors Dr. Hobibur Rahman (mathematics), Prof Sukhranjan Somaddar (Sanskrit), Prof Mir Abdul Quaiyum (psychology) as well as Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (cardiologist), Dr. AFM Alim Chowdhury (ophthalmologist), Shahidullah Kaiser (journalist), Nizamuddin Ahmed (journalist), Selina Parvin (journalist), Altaf Mahmud (lyricist and musician), Dhirendranath Datta (politician), Jahir Raihan (novelist, journalist, film director) and Ranadaprasad Saha (philanthropist).


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
The generally accepted figure for the mass rapes during the nine-month long conflict is between 200,000 and 400,000. During the war, a fatwa in Pakistan declared that the Bengali freedom fighters were Hindus and that their women could be taken as the 'booty of war'. Imams and Muslim religious leaders publicly declared that the Bengali women were 'gonimoter maal' (war booty) and thus they openly supported the rape of Bengali women by the Pakistani Army. Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war. Hindu women used to be killed after being raped and Bengali Muslim women left alive to give birth to "pure" Muslims. Aubrey Menen documented a 17 year old Hindu bride who was gang raped by Pakistani soldiers.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Two went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed... In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 200,000 women raped, giving birth to thousands of war-babies. The soldiers of the Pakistan Army and razakars also kept Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Pakistani Army's camps, and many became pregnant. The perpetrators also included Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army, which targeted noncombatants and committed rapes, as well as other crimes. Among other sources, Susan Brownmiller refers to an estimated number of over 400,000. Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though they have not denied that rape incidents occurred. Brownmiller quotes:


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Khadiga, thirteen years old, was interviewed by a photojournalist in Dacca. She was walking to school with four other girls when they were kidnapped by a gang of Pakistani soldiers. All five were put in a military brothel in Mohammadpur and held captive for six months until the end of the war.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
In a New York Times report named 'Horrors of East Pakistan Turning Hope into Despair', Malcolm W. Browne wrote:


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
One tale that is widely believed and seems to come from many different sources is that 563 women picked up by the army in March and April and held in military brothels are not being released because they are pregnant beyond the point at which abortions are possible.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
The licentious attitude of the soldiers, although generally supported by their superiors, alarmed the regional high command of the Pakistani Army. On 15 April 1971, in a secret memorandum to the divisional commanders, Niazi complained,


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Since my arrival, I have heard numerous reports of troops indulging in looting and arson, killing people at random and without reasons in areas cleared of the anti state elements; of late there have been reports of rape and even the West Pakistanis are not being spared; on 12 April two West Pakistani women were raped, and an attempt was made on two others.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Anthony Mascarenhas published a newspaper article titled 'Genocide in June 1971' in which he also wrote about violence perpetrated by Bengalis against Biharis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
First it was the massacre of the non-Bengalis in a savage outburst of Bengali hatred. Now it was massacre deliberately carried out by the West Pakistan army ... The West Pakistani soldiers are not the only ones who have been killing in East Bengal, of course. On the night of 25 March... the Bengali troops and paramilitary units stationed in East Pakistan mutinied and attacked non-Bengalis with atrocious savagery. Thousands of families of unfortunate Muslims, many of them refugees from Bihar who chose Pakistan at the time of the partition riots in 1947, were mercilessly wiped out. Women were raped, or had their breasts torn out with specially-fashioned knives. Children did not escape the horror; the lucky ones were killed with their parents...


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Pakistani Major General Khadim Hussain Raja wrote in his book that Niazi, in presence of Bengali officers would say ‘Main iss haramzadi qom ki nasal badal doonga (I will change the race of the Bengalis)’. A witness statement to the commission read "The troops used to say that when the Commander (Lt Gen Niazi) was himself a raper (sic), how could they be stopped? ".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Another work that has included direct experiences from the women raped is Ami Birangona Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim. The work includes in its name from the word Birangona (Heroine), given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war, to the raped and tortured women during the war. This was a conscious effort to alleviate any social stigma the women might face in the society.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
There are eyewitness reports of the "rape camps" established by the Pakistani Army. The US based Women Under Siege Project of the Women's Media Center have reported the girls as young as 8 and women as old as 75 were detained in Pakistan military barracks, and where they were victims of mass rape which sometimes culminated in mass murder. The report was based on interview with survivors. Australian Doctor Geoffrey Davis was brought to Bangladesh by the United Nation and International Planned Parenthood Federation to carry out late term abortions on rape victims.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
He was of the opinion that the 200,000 to 400,000 rape victims were an underestimation. On the actions of Pakistan army he said "They'd keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were (sic) sexually matured would be segregated.. And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops ... Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being raped again and again and again. A lot of them died in those [rape] camps. There was an air of disbelief about the whole thing. Nobody could credit that it really happened! But the evidence clearly showed that it did happen."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
In October 2005, Sarmila Bose published a paper suggesting that the casualties and rape allegations in the war have been greatly exaggerated for political purposes. Whilst she received praise from many quarters, a number of researchers have shown inaccuracies in Bose's work, including flawed methodology of statistical analysis, misrepresentation of referenced sources, and disproportionate weight to Pakistani Army testimonies.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
A 2014 film titled Children of War focused on the harrowing condition in the 'rape camps' set up by the Anti Separatists.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against women
Historian Christian Gerlach states that "a systematic collection of statistical data was aborted, possibly because the tentative data did not substantiate the claim that three million had died and at least 200,000 women had been raped."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
An article in Time magazine, dated 2 August 1971, stated "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred." Pakistan army eastern command headquarter officials in Dhaka made clear the government's policy on East Bengal. After the elimination or exile of Hindus, their property was going to be shared among middle class Muslims. According to Colonel Naim, Hindus "undermined the Muslim masses."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
He said Bengali culture to a great extent was Hindu culture, and "We have to sort them out to restore the land to the people." In April 1971 at Comilla, Major Rathore said to Anthony Mascarenhas, regarding Hindus: "Now under the cover of fighting we have an excellent opportunity of finishing them off. [ ...] Of course [...], we are only killing the Hindu men. We are soldiers, not cowards like the rebels."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
Hindus were alleged to have corrupted the Awami League. Pakistani soldiers repeatedly boasted to US Consul Archer Blood that they came "to kill Hindus". A witness heard an officer shouting to soldiers: "Why you have killed Muslims [sic]. We ordered you to kill only Hindus." US government cables noted that the minorities of Bangladesh, especially the Hindus, were specific targets of the Pakistani Army. US consulates reported methodical slaughter of Hindu men in cities starting in the first 24 hours of the crackdown. Army units entered villages asking where Hindus live; it was "common pattern" to kill Hindu males.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
Hindus were identified because they were not circumcised. Sometimes the military also massacred Hindu women. There were barely any areas where no Hindu was killed. There was widespread killing of Hindu males, and rapes of women. Documented incidents in which Hindus were massacred in large numbers include the Jathibhanga massacre, the Chuknagar massacre, and the Shankharipara massacre.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
Senator Edward Kennedy wrote in a report that was part of United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations testimony, dated 1 November 1971, "Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked "H". All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad". More than 60% of the Bengali refugees who fled to India were Hindus.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
It has been alleged that this widespread violence against Hindus was motivated by a policy to purge East Pakistan of what was seen as Hindu and Indian influences. Buddhist temples and Buddhist monks were also attacked throughout the course of the year. Lt . Colonel Aziz Ahmed Khan reported that in May 1971 there was a written order to kill Hindus, and that General Niazi would ask troops how many Hindus they had killed.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
According to R. J. Rummel, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii,


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Pakistani captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." This is the arrogance of Power.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Violence against Hindus
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sydney Schanberg covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the suffering of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the conflict. In a syndicated column "The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored", he wrote about his return to liberated Bangladesh in 1972. "Other reminders were the yellow "H"s the Pakistanis had painted on the homes of Hindus, particular targets of the Muslim army" (by "Muslim army", meaning the Pakistan Army, which had targeted Bengali Muslims as well). Bangladesh reported massacres occurring on a daily basis. One priest reported to Schanberg about the slaughter of over thousand Hindus in southern district of Barisal in one day. According to another priest, meeting was called in northeastern Sylhet district. Later troops arrived and from the gathered crowd selected 300 Hindus and shot them dead.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Persecution of Biharis
In 1947, at the time of partition and the establishment of the state of Pakistan, Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, migrated from India to the newly independent East Pakistan. These Urdu-speaking people were averse to the Bengali language movement and the subsequent nationalist movements because they maintained allegiance toward West Pakistani rulers, causing anti-Bihari sentiments among local nationalist Bengalis. After the convening of the National Assembly was postponed by Yahya Khan on 1 March 1971, the dissidents in East Pakistan began targeting the ethnic Bihari community which had supported West Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Persecution of Biharis
In early March 1971, 300 Biharis were slaughtered in rioting by Bengali mobs in Chittagong alone. The Government of Pakistan used the 'Bihari massacre' to justify its deployment of the military in East Pakistan on 25 March, when it initiated its infamous Operation Searchlight. When the war broke out in 1971, the Biharis sided with the Pakistani Army. Some of them joined Razakar and Al-Shams militia groups and participated in the persecution and genocide of their Bengali countrymen, in retaliation for atrocities committed against them by Bengalis, including the widespread looting of Bengali properties and abetting other criminal activities. When the war finished Biharis faced severe retaliation, resulting in a counter-genocide and the displacement of over a million non-Bengalis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Persecution of Biharis
According to The Minorities at Risk Project the number of Bihari killed was about 1,000. International estimates vary between 20,000 and 200,000. In June 1971, Bihari representatives stated that 500,000 Biharis were killed by Bengalis. R.J. Rummel gives a prudent estimate of 150,000 killed.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Persecution of Biharis
After the war the Government of Bangladesh confiscated the properties of the Bihari Population. There are many reports of massacres of Biharis and alleged collaborators that took place in the period following the surrender of the Pakistani Army on 16 December 1971. In an incident on 18 December 1971, captured on camera and attended by members of the foreign press, Abdul Kader Siddiqui, together with Kaderia Bahini guerrillas under his command and named after him, bayoneted and shot to death a group of prisoners of war who were accused of belonging to the Razakar paramilitary forces.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
Time reported a high US official as saying of the slaughter of the East Pakistanis by their West Pakistani enemies, "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland." Genocide is the term that is used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper in Bangladesh; the term is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group"


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
A 1972 report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) noted that both sides in the conflict accused each other of perpetrating genocide. The report observed that it may be difficult to substantiate claims that the "whole of the military action and repressive measures taken by the Pakistani Army and their auxiliary forces constituted genocide' that was intended to destroy the Bengali people in whole or in part, and that 'preventing a nation from attaining political autonomy does not constitute genocide: the intention must be to destroy in whole or in part the people as such."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
The difficulty of proving intent was considered to be further complicated by the fact that three specific sections of the Bengali people were targeted in killings committed by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators: members of the Awami League, students, and East Pakistani citizens of the Hindu religion. The report observed, however, that there is a strong prima facie case that particular acts of genocide were committed, especially towards the end of the war, when Bengalis were targeted indiscriminately. Similarly, it was felt that there is a strong prima facie case that crimes of genocide were committed against the Hindu population of East Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
As regards the massacres of non-Bengalis by Bengalis during and after the Liberation War, the ICJ report argued that it is improbable that "spontaneous and frenzied mob violence against a particular section of the community from whom the mob senses danger and hostility is to be regarded as possessing the necessary element of conscious intent to constitute the crime of genocide," but that, if the dolus specialis were to be proved in particular cases, these would have constituted acts of genocide against non-Bengalis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
After the minimum 20 countries became parties to the Genocide Convention, it came into force as international law on 12 January 1951. At that time however, only two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were parties to the treaty, and it was not until after the last of the five permanent members ratified the treaty in 1988, and the Cold War came to an end, that the international law on the crime of genocide began to be enforced. As such, the allegation that genocide took place during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 was never investigated by an international tribunal set up under the auspices of the United Nations.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
Rudolph Rummel wrote, "In 1971, the self-appointed president of Pakistan and commander-in-chief of the army General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals prepared a careful and systematic military, economic, and political operation against East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). They planned to murder that country's Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This despicable and cutthroat plan was outright genocide."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions
The genocide is also mentioned in some publications outside the subcontinent; for example, The Guinness Book of Records lists the atrocities as one of the largest five genocides in the twentieth century.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions, US complicity
President Richard Nixon viewed Pakistan as a Cold War ally, and refused to condemn its actions. From the White House tapes: "The President seems to be making sure that the distrusted State Department would not, on its own, condemn Yahya for killing Bengalis." Nixon and China tried to suppress reports of genocide emanating from East Pakistan. Nixon also relied on Americans not paying close attention to events in Asia: "Biafra stirred up a few Catholics. But you know, I think Biafra stirred people up more than Pakistan, because Pakistan they're just a bunch of brown goddamn Moslems."


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions, US complicity
The US government secretly encouraged the shipment of weapons from Iran, Turkey, and Jordan to Pakistan, and reimbursed those countries for them despite Congressional objections.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions, US complicity
A collection of declassified US government documents, mostly consisting of communications between US officials in Washington, D.C. and in embassies and USIS centers in Dhaka and in India, show that US officials knew about these mass killings at the time and, in fact, used the terms "genocide" and "selective genocide," for example, in the "Blood Telegram." They also show that President Nixon, advised by Henry Kissinger, decided to downplay this secret internal advice, because he wanted to protect the interests of Pakistan as he was apprehensive of India's friendship with the USSR, and he was seeking a closer relationship with China, which supported Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions, US complicity
In his book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens elaborates on what he saw as the efforts of Kissinger to subvert the aspirations of independence on the part of the Bengalis. Hitchens not only claims that the term genocide is appropriate to describe the results of the struggle, but also points to the efforts of Henry Kissinger in undermining others who condemned the then-ongoing atrocities as being a genocide. Hitchens concluded, "Kissinger was responsible for the killing of thousands of people, including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, International reactions, US complicity
Some American politicians did speak out. Senator Ted Kennedy charged Pakistan with committing genocide, and called for a complete cut-off of American military and economic aid to Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts
As early as 22 December 1971, the Indian Army was conducting investigations of senior Pakistani Army officers connected to the massacre of intellectuals in Dhaka, with the aim of collecting sufficient evidence to have them tried as war criminals. They produced a list of officers who were in positions of command at the time, or were connected to the Inter-Services Screening Committee.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
On 24 December 1971, Home minister of Bangladesh A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman said, "war criminals will not survive from the hands of law. Pakistani military personnel who were involved with killing and raping have to face tribunal." In a joint statement after a meeting between Sheikh Mujib and Indira Gandhi, the Indian government assured that it would give all necessary assistance for bringing war criminals into justice. In February 1972, the government of Bangladesh announced plans to put 100 senior Pakistani officers and officials on trial for crimes of genocide. The list included General A. K. Niazi and four other generals.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
After the war, the Indian Army held 92,000 Pakistani prisoners of war, 195 of whom were suspected of committing war crimes. All 195 were released in April 1974 following the tripartite Delhi Agreement between Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and repatriated to Pakistan, in return for Pakistan's recognition of Bangladesh. Pakistan expressed interest in performing a trial against those 195 officials. Fearing for the fate of 400,000 Bengalis trapped in Pakistan, Bangladesh agreed to hand them over to Pakistani authorities.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
The Bangladeshi Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order of 1972 was promulgated to bring to trial those Bangladeshis who collaborated with and aided the Pakistani Armed forces during the Liberation War of 1971. There are conflicting accounts of the number of persons brought to trial under the 1972 Collaborators Order, ranging between 10,000 and 40,000. At the time, the trials were considered problematic by local and external observers, because they appear to have been used for carrying out political vendettas.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
R. MacLennan, a British MP who was an observer at the trials stated that 'In the dock, the defendants are scarcely more pitiable than the succession of confused prosecution witnesses driven (by the 88-year-old defence counsel) to admit that they, too, served the Pakistani government but are now ready to swear blindly that their real loyalty was to the government of Bangladesh in exile.' In May 1973, the Pakistani government detained Bengali civil servants stranded in Pakistan, as well as their family members, in response to Bangladesh's attempt to try POWs for genocide. Pakistan unsuccessfully pleaded five times to the International Court of Justice to contest Bangladesh's application of the term "genocide".


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
The government of Bangladesh issued a general amnesty on 30 November 1973, applying it to all persons except those who were punished or accused of rape, murder, attempted murder or arson. The Collaborators Order of 1972 was revoked in 1975.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
The International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 was promulgated to prosecute any persons, irrespective of nationality, who were accused of committing crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, "violations of any humanitarian rules applicable in armed conflicts laid out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949" and "any other crimes under international law". Detainees held under the 1972 Collaborators Order who were not released by the general amnesty of 1973 were going to be tried under this Act. However, no trials were held, and all activities related to the Act ceased after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1972–1975
There are no known instances of criminal investigations or trials outside Bangladesh of alleged perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 war. Initial steps were taken by the Metropolitan Police to investigate individuals resident in the United Kingdom who were alleged to have committed war crimes according to a Channel 4 documentary film aired in 1995. To date, no charges have been brought against these individuals.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1991–2006
On 29 December 1991 Ghulam Azam, who was accused of being a collaborator with Pakistan in the war of 1971, became the chairman or Ameer of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh, which caused controversy. This prompted the creation of a 'National Committee for Resisting the Killers and Collaborators of 1971', in the footsteps of a proposal by writer and political activist Jahanara Imam. A mock people's court was formed, which on 26 March 1992 found Ghulam Azam guilty in a trial that was criticised widely, and which sentenced him to death.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1991–2006
A case was filed in the Federal Court of Australia on 20 September 2006 for alleged crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1971 by the Pakistani Armed Forces and its collaborators. Raymond Solaiman & Associates, acting for the plaintiff Mr. Solaiman, released a press statement which among other things said:


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1991–2006
We are glad to announce that a case has been filed in the Federal Magistrate's Court of Australia today under the Genocide Conventions Act 1949 and War Crimes Act. This is the first time in history that someone is attending a court proceeding in relation to the [alleged] crimes of Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1971 by the Pakistani Armed Forces and its collaborators. The Proceeding number is SYG 2672 of 2006. On 25 October 2006, a direction hearing will take place in the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, Sydney registry before Federal Magistrate His Honor Nicholls.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 1991–2006
On 21 May 2007, at the request of the applicant leave was granted to the applicant to discontinue his application filed on 20 September 2006.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
On 30 July 2009, the Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of Bangladesh stated that no Pakistanis would be tried under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973. This decision has drawn criticism from international jurists, because it effectively gives immunity to the commanders of the Pakistani Army who are generally considered to be ultimately responsible for the majority of the crimes that were committed in 1971.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is a war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh set up in 2009 to investigate and prosecute suspects for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams during the Bangladesh Liberation War. During the 2008 general election, the Awami League (AL) pledged to try war criminals.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
The government set up the tribunal after the Awami League won the general election in December 2008 with more than two-thirds majority in parliament. The War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, tasked to investigate and find evidence, completed its report in 2008, identifying 1600 suspects. Prior to the formation of the ICT, the United Nations Development Programme offered assistance in 2009 on the tribunal's formation. In 2009 the parliament amended the 1973 act that authorised such a tribunal to update it.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
Throughout the years, tens of thousands of mostly young demonstrators, including women, have called for the death penalty for those convicted of war crimes. Non -violent protests supporting this position have occurred in other cities as the country closely follows the trials. The first indictments were issued in 2010.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
By 2012, nine leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in the nation, and two of the Bangladesh National Party, had been indicted as suspects in war crimes. Three leaders of Jamaat were the first tried; each were convicted of several charges of war crimes. The first person convicted was Abul Kalam Azad, who was tried in absentia as he had left the country; he was sentenced to death in January 2013.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
While human rights groups and various political entities initially supported the establishment of the tribunal, they have since criticised it on issues of fairness and transparency, as well as reported harassment of lawyers and witnesses representing the accused. Jamaat-e-Islami supporters and their student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, called a general strike nationwide on 4 December 2012 in protest against the tribunals. The protest leaders demanded that the tribunal be scrapped permanently and their leaders released immediately.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
One of the most high profile verdicts was of Abdul Quader Molla, assistant secretary general of Jamaat, who was convicted in February 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment, which culminated in the massive Shahbag protests. The government, although initially reluctant, eventually appealed the verdict in the Supreme Court, which then sentenced Molla to death. Abdul Quader Molla was subsequently executed on Thursday 12 December 2013, amidst controversies on the legitimacy of the war tribunal hearings, drawing wide criticisms from countries such as the US, UK and Turkey, as well as from the UN. A period of unrest ensued. The majority of the population, however, was found to be in favour of the execution.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi was convicted of war crimes due to his involvement in mass killings, rape, arson, looting and forced conversion of Hindus to Islam. He was sentenced to death by hanging; his sentence, however, was later commuted to life imprisonment.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged on 11 May 2015 for 16 charges of genocide, rape and torture.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, both of whom had been convicted of genocide and rape, were hanged in Dhaka Central Jail shortly after midnight on 22 November 2015.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
On 3 December 2016, business tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, convicted of crimes against humanity for torturing and killing suspected Bangladeshi liberationists, was hanged at Kashimpur Prison.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, War crimes trial attempts, 2007–present
In 2016, a draft of the Digital Security Act was finalized and placed for cabinet approval. The law proposed to declare any propaganda against the War of Liberation as cognizable and non-bailable.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
The Hamoodur Rahman Commission set up by the Pakistani government following the war noted various atrocities committed by the Pakistani military, including: Widespread arson and killings in the countryside; killing of intellectuals and professionals; killing of Bengali military officers and soldiers on the pretence of mutiny; killing Bengali civilian officials, businessmen and industrialists; raping numerous Bengali women as a deliberate act of revenge, retaliation and torture; deliberate killing of members of the Bengali Hindu minority; and the creation of mass graves. The Hamoodur Rahman Commission wrote: "[I]ndiscriminate killing and looting could only serve the cause of the enemies of Pakistan.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
In the harshness, we lost the support of the silent majority of the people of East Pakistan.... The Comilla Cantonment massacre (on 27th/28th of March, 1971) under the orders of CO 53 Field Regiment, Lt. Gen. Yakub Malik, in which 17 Bengali Officers and 915 men were just slain by a flick of one Officer's fingers should suffice as an example". The commission's report and findings were suppressed by the Pakistani government for more than 30 years, but were leaked to the Indian and Pakistani media in 2000. However, the commission's lowly death toll of 26,000 was criticised as an attempt to whitewash the war.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
Several former West Pakistani Army officers who served in Bangladesh during the 1971 war have admitted to large-scale atrocities by their forces.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
The government of Pakistan continues to deny that the 1971 Bangladesh genocide took place under Pakistan's rule of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. They typically accuse Pakistani reporters (such as Anthony Mascarenhas) who reported on the genocide of being "enemy agents". According to Donald W. Beachler, professor of political science at Ithaca College:


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
The government of Pakistan explicitly denied that there was genocide. By their refusal to characterise the mass-killings as genocide or to condemn and restrain the Pakistani government, the US and Chinese governments implied that they did not consider it so.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
Similarly, in the wake of the 2013 Shahbag protests against war criminals who were complicit in the genocide, English journalist Philip Hensher wrote:


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
The genocide is still too little known about in the West. It is, moreover, the subject of shocking degrees of denial among partisan polemicists and manipulative historians.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
In the 1974 Delhi Agreement, Bangladesh called on Pakistan to prosecute 195 military officers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide under relevant provisions of international law. Pakistan responded that it "deeply regretted any crimes that may have been committed". It failed to bring the perpetrators to account on its own soil, as requested by Bangladesh. The position taken by Pakistan was reiterated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1974, when he simply expressed "regret" for 1971, and former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, when he expressed regret for the "excesses" committed in 1971. By 2015, many of those 195 officers were deceased.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
The International Crimes Tribunal set up by Bangladesh in 2009 to prosecute surviving collaborators of the pro-Pakistani militias in 1971 has been the subject of strong criticism in Pakistani political and military circles. On 30 November 2015, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif retreated from earlier positions and said that it denies any role by Pakistan in atrocities in Bangladesh. A statement of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, after summoning the Acting Bangladeshi High Commissioner, said that "Pakistan also rejected insinuation of complicity in committing crimes or war atrocities. Nothing could be further from the truth". The statement marked a growing trend of genocide denial in Pakistan, which picked up pace after controversial Indian academic Sarmila Bose accused the Mukti Bahini of war crimes. Bose asserts that there is greater denial in Bangladesh of war crimes which were committed by Bengalis against Biharis.


1971 Bangladesh genocide, Views in Pakistan
Many in Pakistan's civil society have called for an unconditional apology to Bangladesh and an acknowledgement of the genocide, including noted journalist Hamid Mir, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani, human rights activist Asma Jahangir, former Pakistan Air Force chief Asghar Khan, cultural activist Salima Hashmi, and defence analyst Muhammad Ali Ehsan. Asma Jahangir has called for an independent United Nations inquiry to investigate the atrocities. Jahangir also described Pakistan's reluctance to acknowledge the genocide a result of the Pakistani Army's dominant influence on foreign policy. She spoke of the need for closure on the 1971 genocide. Pakistani historian Yaqoob Khan Bangash described the actions of the Pakistani Army during the Bangladesh Liberation war as a "rampage".


1971 Barbadian general election
General elections were held in Barbados on 9 September 1971. Amendments to the electoral system saw the two-member constituencies previously used replaced by single-member first-past-the-post constituencies. This was also the first election in modern Barbadian history to be contested by only two political parties, not including two independent candidates.


1971 Barbadian general election
The result was a victory for the Democratic Labour Party, which won 18 of the 24 seats. Despite achieving a larger increase in vote share than its opponent, the Barbados Labour Party lost two seats and its leader, Harold Bernard St. John, was defeated in his constituency of Christ Church South Central. Voter turnout was 81.6%, the highest in the country's history.


1971 Barking London Borough Council election
The 1971 Barking Council election took place on 13 May 1971 to elect members of Barking London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the Labour party stayed in overall control of the council.


1971 Barking London Borough Council election, Background
96 Candidates across 6 parties ran. Labour was the only party that ran a full slate of candidates.


1971 Barking London Borough Council election, Results
Labour comfortably maintained its majority. The Conservatives lost all 13 of its councillors to Labour whilst the Residents Association held all 4 of its Councillors. Labour won 45 councillors to the Residents Association 4.


1971 Barnet London Borough Council election
The 1971 Barnet Council election took place on 13 May 1971 to elect members of Barnet London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1971 featured a new committee on the Negro leagues that met in February and selected Satchel Paige, who spent most of his career in Negro league baseball before joining the Cleveland Indians in 1948, when he was over 40 years old. Controversy arose both over the selection of a pitcher with only 28 major-league victories (Negro league baseball statistics were not considered major-league statistics until 2020) and about the original plan not to include Negro league players in the main Hall of Fame. In July, officials announced that Paige and future Negro league selections would be included in the main Hall of Fame. Paige was honored alongside other Hall of Fame inductees in August.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
Otherwise, the elections continued a system of annual elections in place since 1968. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected no one. The Veterans Committee met in closed-door sessions to select from executives, managers, umpires, and earlier major league players. It elected seven, the most in its 1953 to 2001 history: Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard, and George Weiss. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on August 9, 1971, with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn presiding.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1951 or later, but not after 1965; the ballot included candidates from the 1970 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1965. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. The ballot consisted of 48 players; a total of 360 ballots were cast, with 270 votes required for election. A total of 2,681 individual votes were cast, an average of 7.45 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger (†). Candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Johnny Vander Meer and Bobby Doerr were on the ballot for the final time.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
The field of newly eligible players included 13 All Stars, 7 of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 70 All Star selections. The new class included 18-time All-Star Yogi Berra, 15-time All-Star Nellie Fox, 6-time All-Star Vic Power, and 5-time All-Stars Dick Donovan and Roy Sievers.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Frank Baumann, Gino Cimoli, Dick Donovan, Ryne Duren, Gordon Jones, Frank Lary, Don Mossi, Gus Triandos and Don Zimmer.


1971 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, J. G. Taylor Spink Award
Heywood Broun (1888–1939) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer. The award was voted at the December 1970 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1971 ceremonies.


1971 Baylor Bears football team
The 1971 Baylor Bears football team represented the Baylor University in the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. The Bears offense scored 74 points, while the Bears defense allowed 236 points. In the Battle of the Brazos, Texas A&M beat the Bears by a score of 10–9.


1971 Belgian Open Championships
The 1971 Belgian Open Championships was a men's tennis tournament staged at the Leopold Club in Brussels, Belgium that was part of the Grand Prix circuit and categorized as a Group B event. The tournament was played on outdoor clay courts and was held from 17 May until 23 May 1971. It was the fifth edition of the tournament and Cliff Drysdale won the singles title.


1971 Belgian Open Championships, Finals, Doubles
Marty Riessen /  Tom Okker and  Ilie Năstase /  Ion Țiriac divided


1971 Belgian general election
General elections were held in Belgium on 7 November 1971. The result was a victory for the Christian People's Party, which won 40 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 34 of the 106 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 91.5%. Elections to the nine provincial councils were also held.


1971 Belgian general election
The linguistic issues led to the splitting of the major parties into separate Flemish and Francophone parties. Consequently the election returned a very fragmented parliament.


1971 Belgian general election
The election followed the first state reform, with the creation of three cultural communities. The newly elected members of parliament would thus also serve in the newly established cultural councils.


1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open
The 1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open was a combined men's and women's Grand Prix tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was in Auckland, New Zealand from 7 March to 13 March 1971. Bob Carmichael and Margaret Court won the singles titles.


1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open, Finals, Men's Doubles
Bob Carmichael /  Ray Ruffels defeated  Brian Fairlie /  Raymond Moore 6–3, 6–7, 6–4, 4–6, 6–3


1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open, Finals, Women's Doubles
Margaret Court /  Evonne Goolagong defeated  Lesley Bowrey /  Winnie Shaw 7–6, 6–0


1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open – Men's Singles
Bob Carmichael defeated Allan Stone 7–6, 7–6, 6–3 to win the 1971 Benson & Hedges Centennial Open singles competition. Roger Taylor was the reigning champion but did not defend his title.


1971 Bexley London Borough Council election
The 1971 Bexley Council election took place on 13 May 1971 to elect members of Bexley London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the Labour party gained overall control of the council.


1971 Big League World Series
The 1971 Big League World Series took place from August 16–21 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. Cupertino, California defeated Lincolnwood, Illinois twice in the championship game.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season
The 1971 Big Ten Conference football season was the 76th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1971 NCAA University Division football season.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season
This was the first season in which Big Ten teams were permitted to schedule 11 games, one season after most schools first did so. Ohio State increased its schedule from nine games to 10, but did not play 11 until 1974, while Purdue first scheduled an 11th game in 1972.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season
The 1971 Michigan Wolverines football team, under head coach Bo Schembechler, compiled an 11–0 record in the regular season but lost to Stanford, 13–12, on a field goal with 12 seconds remaining in the 1972 Rose Bowl. The Wolverines led the Big Ten in both scoring offense (35.1 points per game) and scoring defense (6.9 points allowed per game). The team was ranked No. 4 in the final Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the final AP Poll. Linebacker Mike Taylor and offensive guard Reggie McKenzie were consensus first-team All-Americans. Running back Billy Taylor rushed for 1,297 yards, was named as the team most valuable player, and was selected as a first-team All-American by the Football News. Defensive back Thom Darden was selected as a first-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association and The Sporting News.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season
The 1971 Northwestern Wildcats football team, under head coach Alex Agase, compiled a 7–4 record and finished in second place in the Big Ten. Quarterback Maurie Daigneau led the Big Ten with 1,733 passing yards and was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten player. Defensive back Eric Hutchinson was selected as a first-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America. The Wildcats did not finish in the first division again until winning the conference and going to the Rose Bowl in 1995.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season
Michigan State running back Eric Allen led the Big Ten with 1,494 rushing yards and 108 points scored and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the conference's most valuable player. Purdue halfback/wide receiver Darryl Stingley led the conference with 734 receiving yards, and Minnesota quarterback Craig Curry led the conference with 2,071 total yards.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Results and team statistics
KeyAP final = Team's rank in the final AP Poll of the 1971 seasonAP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1971 seasonPPG = Average of points scored per game; conference leader's average displayed in boldPAG = Average of points allowed per game; conference leader's average displayed in boldMVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy; trophy winner in bold


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, September 11
On September 11, 1971, the Big Ten football teams opened the season with four conference games and one non-conference game. Purdue did not open its season until the following week.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, September 18
On September 18, 1971, the Big Ten teams participated in nine non-conference games, resulting in three wins and six losses. Ohio State had a bye week.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, September 25
On September 25, 1971, the Big Ten teams played 10 non-conference games, resulting in three wins and seven losses. Through the first three weeks of the season, the Big Ten had compiled a 7–13 record against non-conference opponents.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, October 2
On October 2, 1971, the Big Ten teams played two conference games and six non-conference games. The non-conference games resulted in three wins and three losses, giving the Big Ten a 10–16 non-conference record to that point in the season.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, October 9
On October 9, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, October 16
On October 16, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, October 23
On October 23, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, October 30
On October 30, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, November 6
On November 6, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, November 13
On November 13, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Regular season, November 20
On November 20, 1971, the Big Ten teams played five conference games.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Bowl games
The game was the first Rose Bowl meeting between the two schools since the inaugural Rose Bowl in 1902, in which Michigan crushed Stanford, 49–0. In the 1972 rematch, Michigan was ranked #3 in the country and favored by 10½ points. Michigan's Dana Coin kicked a 30-yard field goal in the second quarter for the only first half scoring. In the first series of the second half, Stanford stopped the Wolverines on fourth and one at Stanford's four-yard line, then tied the game on a 42-yard field goal by Rod Garcia.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Bowl games
Early in the fourth quarter, Michigan's Fritz Seyferth scored on a one-yard dive to put Michigan up 10–3. After Stanford got the ball back, the Indians faced fourth and ten from their own 33. Stanford ran a fake punt, with Jim Kehl receiving the snap and handing the ball forward to Jackie Brown through Brown's legs. Brown ran 33 yards for a first down, and followed up a minute later with a 24-yard touchdown run to tie the game. Late in the fourth quarter, Michigan recovered a Stanford fumble near midfield.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Bowl games
Facing fourth down with time running down, the Wolverines attempted a 42-yard field goal. The kick was short, and Stanford safety Jim Ferguson caught the ball and attempted to run it out of the end zone. Instead, he was knocked back into the end zone by Ed Shuttlesworth for a controversial Michigan safety, as replays seemed to show that Ferguson's forward progress was to the three-yard line. This made the score 12–10 with just over three minutes to play, and Michigan due to get the ball on a free kick.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Season overview, Bowl games
Following the free kick, Stanford held Michigan to a three-and-out and got the ball back on their own 22-yard line with 1:48 to go. Bunce then threw five consecutive completions to take Stanford to the Michigan 17-yard line with 22 seconds left. The Indians ran twice to get to the Michigan 14-yard line with 12 seconds left. From there, Garcia kicked a 31-yard field goal to give Stanford a 13–12 victory.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Statistical leaders, Passing yards
1. Maurie Daigneau, Northwestern (1,733)2. Craig Curry, Minnesota (1,691)3. Gary Danielson, Purdue (1,467)4. Neil Graff, Wisconsin (1,300)5. Frank Sunderman, Iowa (1,297)


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Statistical leaders, Rushing yards
1. Eric Allen, Michigan State (1,494)2. Billy Taylor, Michigan (1,297)3. Rufus Ferguson, Wisconsin (1,222)4. Otis Armstrong, Purdue (945)5. Al Robinson, Northwestern (881)5. Ernie Cook, Minnesota (881)


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Statistical leaders, Receiving yards
1. Darryl Stingley, Purdue (734)2. Barry Pearson, Northwestern (674)3. Albert Hannah, Wisconsin (608)4. Rick Sayers, Purdue (573)5. Jim Lash, Northwestern (523)


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Statistical leaders, Total yards
1. Craig Curry, Minnesota (2,071)2. Maurie Daigneau, Northwestern (1,678)3. Gary Danielson, Purdue (1,494)3. Eric Allen, Michigan State (1,494)5. Neil Graff, Wisconsin (1,486)


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Statistical leaders, Scoring
1. Eric Allen, Michigan State (108)2. Billy Taylor, Michigan (78)2. Rufus Ferguson, Wisconsin (78)4. Randy Anderson, Northwestern (60)4. Otis Armstrong, Purdue (60)


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Awards and honors, All-Big Ten honors
The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press International (UPI) as first-team players on the 1971 All-Big Ten Conference football team.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Awards and honors, All-American honors
At the end of the 1971 season, Big Ten players secured two of the consensus first-team picks for the 1971 College Football All-America Team. The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were:


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Awards and honors, All-American honors
Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, Awards and honors, Other awards
Running back Eric Allen of Michigan State finished 10th in the voting for the 1971 Heisman Trophy.


1971 Big Ten Conference football season, 1972 NFL Draft
The following Big Ten players were among the first 100 picks in the 1972 NFL Draft:


1971 Billie Jean King Invitational
The 1971 Billie Jean King Invitational was a women's tennis tournament that took place in Long Beach in the United States. It was part of the 1971 Virginia Slims Circuit and began on January 14, 1971. First seeded Billie Jean King win the singles title.


1971 Billie Jean King Invitational, Finals, Doubles
Billie Jean King /  Rosie Casals defeated  Françoise Dürr /  Ann Jones 7–5, 6–3


1971 Billie Jean King Invitational – Singles
16 players played in the first edition of the Billie Jean King Invitational which would later become the LA Women's Tennis Championships. In the final it was top seed Billie Jean King who won 6–1, 6–2 against Rosie Casals who she played against in the previous week.


1971 Bingöl earthquake
The 1971 Bingöl earthquake occurred at 18:44:02 local time on 22 May. It had a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, killing at least 755 people.


1971 Birthday Honours
The 1971 Queen's Birthday Honours were appointments to orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms to reward and highlight citizens' good works, on the occasion of the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. They were announced in supplements to The London Gazette of 4 June 1971 for the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, and Fiji.


1971 Birthday Honours
At this time honours for Australians were awarded both in the United Kingdom honours on the advice of the premiers of Australian states, and also in a separate Australia honours list.


1971 Birthday Honours
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged by honour, with classes (Knight, Knight Grand Cross, etc.) and then divisions (Military, Civil, etc.) as appropriate.


1971 Birthday Honours, United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Royal Victorian Order, Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO)
At this time the two lowest classes of the Royal Victorian Order were "Member (fourth class)" and "Member (fifth class)", both with post-nominal letters MVO. "Member (fourth class)" was renamed "Lieutenant" (LVO) from the 1985 New Year Honours onwards.


1971 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)
The 1971 Queen's Birthday Honours in New Zealand, celebrating the official birthday of Elizabeth II, were appointments made by the Queen on the advice of the New Zealand government to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by New Zealanders. They were announced on 12 June 1971.


1971 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour.


1971 Blue Swords
Blue Swords was a senior international figure skating competition in East Germany. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles and pair skating.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team
The 1971 Boise State Broncos football team represented Boise State College during the 1971 NCAA College Division football season, the fourth season of Bronco football (at the four-year level) and the second as members of the Big Sky Conference and NCAA. In the College Division (now Division II), they played their home games on campus at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team
Led by fourth-year head coach Tony Knap, the Broncos were 9–2 in the regular season and 4–2 in conference.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team
Boise State opened the season with a stunning 42–14 upset of Idaho in the first meeting between the two teams, creating an instant rivalry game. This was actually an Idaho "home game" moved to Boise, because their new stadium in Moscow was not completed. A member of the University Division, Idaho had frequently played one home game per season in Boise in the old wooden Bronco Stadium (and its predecessors) from 1920 through 1968; this ended when Boise State joined the Big Sky. Despite the opening loss, Idaho won the conference title in 1971, as the Broncos lost twice on the road.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team
Knap was named coach of the year in the West for the College Division.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, Camellia Bowl
Invited for the first time to the eight-team postseason in the College Division, Boise State accepted a bid to play Chico State in the Camellia Bowl in Sacramento, California. The teams last met in the season opener in 1970, the first-ever game in Bronco Stadium. Boise State was ranked seventh in the final small college poll, released by the Associated Press in late November.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, Camellia Bowl
The game included a wager between the respective governors of the two states, Cecil Andrus of Idaho and Ronald Reagan of California. The bet was for three-day vacations, at either Sun Valley in central Idaho or Disneyland in southern California.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, Camellia Bowl
Reagan invited the Chico State team to his office the day before the game and encouraged the Wildcats to go out and win for the state of California. Although a neutral site game, Chico State only had to travel 90 miles (145 km) from its campus.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, Camellia Bowl
After a scoreless first quarter, Chico State had a 14–0 lead at halftime, and was ahead by three touchdowns after three quarters. Led by quarterback (and placekicker) Eric Guthrie, Boise State outscored the Wildcats 25–0 in the final period to win 32–28. This was the extent of the postseason in the College Division; after the final poll in late November, four regional bowls (quarterfinals) were played in mid-December. A full tournament was initiated in 1973 with the introduction of Division II.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, Camellia Bowl
It was later revealed that Guthrie had signed a professional baseball contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization five years earlier in 1966. The NCAA had Boise State return the winner's trophy and $18,000, its share of the gate and other receipts.


1971 Boise State Broncos football team, NFL Draft
Two Broncos were selected in the 1972 NFL Draft, which lasted seventeen rounds (442 selections).


1971 Bolivian Primera División
The 1971 Bolivian Primera División, the first division of Bolivian football (soccer), was played by 12 teams. The champion was Oriente Petrolero.


1971 Boston College Eagles football team
The 1971 Boston College Eagles football team represented Boston College during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. The Eagles were led by fourth-year head coach Joe Yukica and played their home games at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Boston College finished with a record of 9–2, but were not invited to a bowl game. The Eagles were passed up for a spot in the Peach Bowl in favor of five-loss Georgia Tech, partly due to the Eagles' reputation of having a slow, defense-heavy style of play.


1971 Boston College Eagles football team, Schedule, Game notes
The game against rival Holy Cross was moved at the last minute to the newly constructed Schaefer Stadium (home of the New England Patriots until 2001) due to a heavy snowstorm making conditions unplayable at Fitton Field in Worcester.


1971 Boston Red Sox season
The 1971 Boston Red Sox season was the 71st season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished third in the American League East with a record of 85 wins and 77 losses, 18 games behind the Baltimore Orioles, who went on to win the AL championship.