Sharmila Bose is not Bangladeshi, she is an Indian. And her book has been comprehensively rubbished by almost every credible historian.
I don't want to go on about the past that we are all trying to move on from, but mass killings by Pak forces did happen. Nowhere near 3m but many thousands. The countries' Intellectuals were target killed. Hundreds of women were raped. There are many living eyewitnesses to these matters (Bd, Pakistanis and Indian) so better to accept it and move on.
Muktis did kill many in revenge, especially Biharis, but it is a truth that Bdesh does not deny and is still dealing with today.
I have yet to read an actual 'rubbishing' by any credible historian. It is very difficult to 'rubbish' an original piece of investigative work of historical importance. She did not just write a book out of thin air. She traveled to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and also did research in India. She conducted numerous interviews. One thing kept coming up again and again. The claims were actually widely exaggerated and were unsustainable in the light of investigations. As far as I have read, any people who do try to call her work into question do so by quoting dubious sources and emotional devices. These cooked up numbers are for local consumption of nationalist Bangladeshis and they certainly are not interested in questioning them, particularly since their Indian friends are there to lull any suspicions to sleep.
The story of 3 million comes from a mis-translation of 3 lac (300,000) to 3 million. The figure of 300,000 was on the higher side to begin with. The addition of a zero in the wrong place makes this claim totally unsustainable in the light of scrutiny.
The only account of a woman who suffered rapes that I came across was by a woman who toured GCC countries in 2001 (?) and the local media covered her story by publishing her story in papers. She claimed that she had been abducted by and Bangali she trusted as an elder and was kept in a rest house where she was raped by Pakistan Army officers as well as their Bangali cohorts (not Bihari). One of the rapists was the Bangali person who had abducted her in the first place.
This is an account of a woman who made a GoB-sponsored tour of GCC countries during government of Awami League under Hasina.
This account in interesting in asserting that: 1. Pakistan Army Officer(s) were complicit in some rapes. 2. The Bangalis themselves facilitated such activity. 3. Bangalis too were involved in this practice.
This also recalls to my mind the excellent book, "Witness to Surrender" by Sadeeq Salik who had a background in journalism and was attached with Pakistan Army as information officer and it was his job to interface with media and journalists.
On Page 103 of his book's Urdu edition, he writes that many Bangali families felt that they could be safe if they had some connection with officers of Pakistan Army. Such house holds which had attractive females indeed had good protection because of Pakistan Army Officers' frequent visits. He describes one such attempt by an editor of a Bangla news paper. His wife when left alone with Sadeeq Salik gave him a good dressing down, and he left the angry beauty by herself despite her husband's willingness for them to be together for an hour or two.
In this book, Sadeeq Salik describes the difficulty of gathering figures and estimates the casualties to be in four figures. The said book is a treasure trove of information since it describes the situation that led to Operation Search-light, attack by India, and then surrender of Pakistan Army.
The Pakistan Army was a disciplined army and though there doubtless were atrocitites committed, they were certainly not at the level often described by Bangladeshi nationalists and their Indian friends.
