One of Free India’s finest moments

Forty-six years ago today, on 16 December 1971, East Pakistan surrendered to Indian forces after a 14-day war, one of the shortest in world history.

Forty-six years ago today, on 16 December 1971, East Pakistan surrendered to Indian forces after a 14-day war, one of the shortest in world history. In early 1971, India was reeling under the influx of refugees from East Pakistan fleeing a genocide by the Pakistani army from the Punjabi-dominated west, bent on teaching a lesson to the Bengalis who had won the general elections by a landslide.

Over a million were slaughtered, raped and maimed by the rampaging army, and some 10 million fled into India. Unable to feed, clothe and provide medical facilities to such a massive influx, India started training and arming some of them—called the Mukti Bahini—to go back and fight the Pakistanis and the loyalist Razakars.

When war was officially declared after Pakistani air strikes on Indian airbases in the west on December 3, Indian PM Indira Gandhi and her Army Chief Sam Manekshaw were well prepared. The Indian Navy blockaded Karachi port, and the Indian Army, aided and abetted by the Mukti Bahini, bypassed smaller cities and headed straight for the eastern capital of Dhaka.

The surrender was negotiated by General J F R Jacob, Chief of Staff of the Indian Army’s Eastern Command, and Bangladesh was born. General A A K Niazi, the last governor and commander of the Pakistan’s eastern wing, would later claim that despite having more troops under his command than the Indian army had outside Dhaka, he was “bullied” by Jacob into the abject public surrender, the first of its kind. More than 96,000 Pakistanis were taken Prisoners of War, and later released by India unconditionally following abject pleas by the new PM of a dismembered Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

It was one of Independent India’s finest moments, and the day is marked as Vijay Divas, or Victory Day. Sadly, it is today celebrated more in military cantonments than on the streets, and the 3,000 or so Indian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice are all but forgotten. As a veteran put it, a nation which does not honour its war dead dishonours itself.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com