Pakistani Bengal went through a period of repression, as the 1958 Pakistani coup d'état instituted the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan, which cracked down on the Bengali left-wing and democratic movements. The socialist Sheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as the leader of the opposition and launched the Six point movement for greater autonomy in East Pakistan. In 1969, a mass uprising in East Pakistan led to the overthrow of Ayub Khan and an electoral victory for Rahman. But the military's new leader Yahya Khan refused to recognize the results and enforced martial law over East Pakistan. As part of Operation Searchlight, the Pakistani military began to commit a genocide against the Bengali people, killing hundreds of thousands. This provoked the proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence and the beginning of the Bangladesh Liberation War, which resulted in the surrender of Pakistani forces and the independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.