The central role of students in the armed secessionist rebellion aided by India was a main reason why the Razakars killed Bengali students and intellectuals on Dhaka University grounds on 25 March at the start of Operation Searchlight and committed another massacre of Bengali intellectuals on 14 December, two days before Pakistan's defeat and surrender and Bangladesh's resulting independence. Both massacres were committed on the grounds that Dhaka University was a hotbed of guerrilla activity and served as an arms dump and a nerve center of military operations run by the university's students and faculty.