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Hello and thank you for downloading this edition of the Witness History Podcast from the BBC

World Service. I'm Frahana Heather.

All this week we're looking back at the Bengali War of Independence, which ended 50 years ago,

and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

The catalyst for the conflict was the elections in Pakistan in December 1970.

They were the first since the end of British colonial rule,

and the results would lead to the breakup of Pakistan

and the creation of Bangladesh.

This is the first time since Britain granted independence to Pakistan in 1947 that there's

been an opportunity for every adult Pakistani to vote for the government he or she once.

I've been speaking to economist Raymond Subhan, a leading figure in the Bengali nationalist

movement.

You had a sense of extraordinary exhilaration.

This was the first time on a national basis that the Bengali had really been given the right

to democratically express themselves and this overwhelming mandate was of course something which we only dreamt about.

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