India pakistan fought wars in 1947 and 1965. We all know what happened along the line of LOC. But why did india never attacked the bengal front during 1847 and 1965 considering it was still a part of pakistan.
Was it because it would face backlash from the bengali community in India . Also why did pakistan did not place its strategic missile in east pakistan during that period and threaten us from that front ?
There was never any intention on the Indian side of fighting wars. That was entirely at the initiative of Pakistan on both occasions mentioned. In 1947, she recruited, armed and despatched demobilised soldiers from the British Indian Army of WWII, residents of the NWFP, to attack Kashmir; these raiders were led by a Pakistani brigadier, although Pakistan claimed that they were in a spontaneous uprising and had acquired arms and ammunition all by themselves. The raiders joined the insurgents at Muzaffarabad, and marched towards Srinagar. They were repelled by the Indian Army from just outside Srinagar, and were driven back all the way to Muzaffarabad. Another set of aggressors attacked from the north-west and captured Skardu and Kargil and besieged Leh. They too were pushed out of Ladakh, and Kargil was relieved.
There was no question of any military activity. There was no war being fought, initially, only savage raiders to be repelled. There was no such attack on any other front. India was defending a state ruled by a Maharaja from aggression and all activity was restricted to that; India's role was purely defensive. Around the same time, the Nawab of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan, against the instructions of the British who had told the princes that they might accede only to a Dominion from among India and Pakistan that was contiguous. The subordinate states revolted against him, and the Indian Army put troops into those two states under Junagadh to stop any rioting; no troops entered Junagadh. Finally, after the Dewan followed the Nawab and fled to Karachi by sea, handing over the administration to an Indian officer in a nearby Kutchi state, this state was occupied, and a plebiscite held to determine the wishes of the people.
Finally, considerably later, the efforts of the Nizam to seek independence led to the Indian Army occupying the territory ruled by him and annexing it to India.
There was no general war; only reactions to one case of aggression, and to two cases of a ruler out of tune with his people, and their states rapidly running out of control. There was no question of attacking Pakistan, or of attacking east Pakistan, any more than there was a possibility of Pakistan attacking the former directly ruled parts of India.
In 1965, Pakistan was in a dangerously over-confident mood. Having sent in troops including armour against policemen and light infantry manning border posts in Kutch, and won easy victories, the Pakistan Army had convinced itself that it was capable of fighting and defeating the Indian Army everywhere. It sent nine commando squads into Kashmir to commit acts of sabotage, or to attack administrative centres, hoping that the population would rise against the Indian Army seeing this violence break out. Instead they were reported to the Indian Army, and each of them driven out, in one case with heavy fighting, and almost all others captured. It was then that Pakistan launched tanks in an attack on the international border, at Chhamb, recognised as a border between the two states by Pakistan, but erroneously considered by the Pakistani generals responsible to be part of the cease-fire line in Kashmir. This led to open warfare breaking out.
Again, there was no scope for any action against East Pakistan at the outset, because the Indian Army, again, was defending against Pakistani attacks. But there was skirmishing between border troopers, and there was, towards the end, aerial raiding by the PAF on India. India chose not to react to these provocations. The Indian Army was emphatically not fighting a general war, only defending against the attacks made.
