The Indian Republican Army was a short-lived revolutionary army that was created by Surya Sen and the Anushilan Samiti organization in 1930. The army was created with the goal of liberating the city of Chittagong, Bengal Presidency from British rule, an act that was supposed to start a nationwide uprising. The group had only seven pistols and five rifles by March 1930, but Surya Sen was still determined to carry out the uprising on 18 April 1930, and the Chittagong armory raid was a success. The rebels, consisting of students under the age of 20 and led by adult officers, took over Chittagong without a shot being fired, as they succeeded in blowing up the railroad tracks and cutting the communication lines, isolating the city. The army's 50 soldiers left town towards the Jalalabad hill ranges after they failed to acquire machine guns and discovered that British reinforcements were preparing for a counterattack, and the Indian Republican Army dispersed into smaller villages and waged a small guerrilla campaign against the British and their sepoy soldiers, killing several of them. Surya Sen was tracked down and executed in 1934, ending the movement.
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