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Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Frahana Heather.

Today I am bringing you the story of a forgotten part of Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.

Hundreds of thousands of women were raped during the conflict with what is now Pakistan.

It's considered one of the worst examples in the 20th century of sexual violence being used as a weapon of war.

An emergency clinic in Dhaka,

capital of Bangladesh,

where an international medical team is trying to tackle

perhaps the most poignant problem to arise out of the recent conflict, that of the thousands

of girls and young women who've become pregnant after being raped by Pakistani soldiers.

In 1971, troops from what was then West Pakistan fought for nine months to try to prevent Bangladesh

becoming independent and rape was one of the weapons they and their local

collaborators used. They're now desperate they're trying to cope with the consequences of rape.

It's been estimated that some 200,000 women are pregnant

after being raped some of them dozens of times.

...