Col Alok Mathur, SM (Veteran)
India was declared as an independent country at 0001 hours on 15 August 1947 as millions of Indians witnessed lowering of Union Jack and hoisting of Tricolour by first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He addressed from Ramparts of Red fort “ Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now time has come when we shall redeem our pledge. At stoke of Midnight, hour , when the World sleeps, India will awake to Life and freedom”.The tragedy was it was not United India but split in to two nations ,India and Pakistan by the illogical and in hurry malicious demarcation of frontiers between two nations by Lord Radcliffe. Moreover ,Pakistan had two parts – East and West Pakistan Almost 2200 km away from each other. Kashmir, Hyderabad, Junagadh and Goa wanted to be separate entity. India was fortunate to have Sardar Patel as Home minister and Deputy prime minister who orchestrated the amalgamation of Junagadh and Kashmir in India in 1947 itself and Hyderabad in 1948. Goa was liberated in 1961.
Mohmmud Ali Jinnah , the resident of Muslim League became the first Governer General and Secretray general Liaquat Ali was appointed as First Prime minister of Pakistan. He declared Urdu as state Language , which was not liked by East Bengalis.Karachi was the first capital of Pakistan. After demise of Jinnah, Khwaja Nizanmmudin, a Bengali become second Governer general in 1948. Liaquat Ali was assinated in 1951. Here were riots in Dacca on Language issue and Protesters were fired upon b Police although Nizzamuddin declared Bengali will be used as official language in East Pakistan only. The elections were held in Pakistan. Awami League / COMMUNIST came to power in East Pakistan and Republicans got majotity in West Pakistan. Pakistan was declared as Islamic Republic in 1956. Iskander Mirza become the first President of Pakistan and Huseyn Suhrawady of socialist alliance was appointed s Prime minister who visited USA, Russia and China .Iskandar Mirza developed differences with Suhrawady and treated East Pakistan as a step brother. He dismissed Suharwady and thre more PMs wit in two years.
Pak Mulim League grew stronger and asked for Elections again. President Iskander Mirza behaved like a dictator and dismissed governments in East AND West Pakistan.In Oct 1958 , He appointed Army Chief General Ayub Khan as Commander in Chief and declared Emergency. General Ayub Khan upgraded himself to Chief Law Adminstrator. Mirza now realised his folly and issued order to dismiss him but General Ayub Khan was toppled in a coup and exiled to London. Ayub Khan became Field Marshal and appointed Musa khan as new Chief. The unrest was brewing in East Pakistan as Army ruled prevailed in East and West Pakistan.
Through National Referdum . FM Ayub Khan was declared as Second President and formed a civilian government . Capital was re located from Karachi to Islmabad. Paksitan now got closer to USA by joining anti Soviet Military alliance SEATO in 1955and CENTO in 1962. Sardar Patel had predicted in 1948 itself that Pakistan will be dismembered within 25 years. East Pakistan had population of ethinic Bengali speaking population and culture was neglected . East Pakistan had almost 30 % Hindu Bengali population and 70 % Muslim Bengali masses. Right from the inception, East Pakistan was not given its due share in Budget and most of development projects were allotted to West Pakistan. Pakistan Armed forces Bengali officers were observed with suspicion and treated badly. They preferred to call them as East Bengal. Indo Pak War of 1965 further developed rift between two parts of Pakistan.
Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman OF Awami League emerged as a strong leader asking for more autonomy to East Pakistan and allotment of more share of Budget in 1966.Pakistan People Party now grew stronger under Zulfikar Bhutto and demanded elections. There were strikes and unrest throughout Pakistan. General Yahya Khan became the Commander In Chief of Pakistan Army in 1966 replacing General Musa Khan. He was main architect of Operation Gibraltor. He replaced Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1969 AS President of Pakistan. He ordered and held the General Election in 1970. The general elections were held in both parts and out of 313 assembly seat 167 seats( all in East Pak ) were won by Awami League and 88 seats ( all in West Pak) were won by PPP. Now, legally Mujib party should form Government but Bhutto did not agree and poisiones Yahya khan also.They did not want Mujib ur Rahman, a Bengali to become Prime minister of Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib organised non cooperation movement in East Pakistan. Nurul Amin was appointed as interim Prime minister and Vice President. The die was cast. Large scale riots flared up in East Pakistan .The reconciliation among Yayha Khan,Bhutto and Mujib failed. President General Yahya Khan finally lost his cool and ordered arrest of Head of Awami League, its top leadership and rebel students and defuse the rebellion.
The military regime responded with full scale military crackdown, named Op Search Light under Maj Gen Tikka Khan in March 1971 and ended in May 1971i, killing lakhs of civilians and raping thousands of poor women in order to coerce East Pakistani masses. Consequently, 10 million Bengalis fled to India as refugees, thus putting great burden on Indian economy. The Government of India led by Mrs Indira Gandhi advised Pakistan to stop atrocities on innocent Bengalese civilians and create situation for return of refugees. United States, China and other Muslim nations indirectly supported all actions by Pakistan Army being an ally. India also launched diplomatic offensive to USSR , USA ,France, England and other important countries .The master stoke was Defence Treaty with USSR to counter threat direct involvement of China and USA in War and also to have veto United Nations security council. India raised and trained Mukti Bahini to operate in East Pakistan as a covert force of deserters and locals.
OP Jackpot was launched in Sep 1971 for guerrilla operations. The Third Indo Pak War officially started on 3 Dec 1971, when Pak Air Force Jets carried out pre emptive air strike on 11 Air bases of India. The War was fought on both eastern and western front. The strategy was aggressive on Eastern theatre and defensive on Western theatre. Pakistan had General AAK Niazi as the Eastern Theatre commander with 14 Pak Infantry Division and a regiment of Chaffee / PT 76 tanks( 29 Cav). initially . Later on it was re- inforced by three more divisions. PAF had a squadron of 20 Sabre F 86 Fighters and half squadron of C 130 Hercules and few MI 8 Helicopters. Pak Navy Hhad one Destroyer and attack boats . India had concentrated three corps one each from East , West and North West. 101 Comn Zone formed the Northern pincer under Eastern Army commanded by Lt Genera Jagjit Singh Aurora and Lt General Rafael Jacob as Chief of Staff. The War lasted for 14 days. The unconditional surrender was signed by Lt Gen AAK Niazi at 1431 h on 16 Dec 1971. All guns fell silent at sunset of 17 Dec 1971 as unilateral ceasefire came in to effect.
On 13 Dec at 1100h , an American resolution for immediate ceasefire between India and Pakistan under UN Supervision was put up in Security council and after discussion was put up for voting .USSR exercised Veto for the third time and informed India now hasten your ops as they will not veto the resolution next time. The PM informed General Manekshaw regarding the development. He rang up Lt Gen Jacab regarding progress of operations and asked to info Army commander to capture the towns of Sylhet, Rangpur and Dinajpur .Jacob suggested that we were at the gateway of Dhaka and focus should be capture hearts and minds of Dhaka Commander. He said go ahead time was at premium. Gen Jacob contacted Gen Niazi on wireless at 2100 h, offered the proposal for surrender as Dhaka was surrounded from all sides .All surrendered will be treated with dignity under Geneva Convention. Mukti Bahini like wounded hordes of wolves were on the prowl. He gave no answer.
On 14 Dec, we got an intercept that there will be a high level meeting at Old Government House in Dhaka chaired by Governor Dr AM Malik at 1200 h to discuss current situation and likely arrival of US seventh fleet in Indian Ocean. The meeting will be attended by Maj Gen Rao farman Ali, Chief of Staff, Airforce head .Naval head and UN counsel as well as foreign reporters. IAF fighters carried our Air strike as the meeting was in progress. Hunters and Gnats bombarded the area for two hours in waves. The Governor resigned at 1300 h .At 1600h, General Niazi and Maj Gen Farman Ali approached Herbert Spicvac, US Counsel General with draft proposals of Ceasefire under UN, who fwd it to US embassy in Islamabad and onward to New York. The UN resolution proposed by Poland was passed on 15 Dec 1971 for ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Gen Manekshaw received message ay 1700h on 15 Dec, who assured all norms of Geneva Convention will be followed. Jacob got an urgent call from Army Chief at 0915 h on 16 Dec 1971 Jake go to Dhaka immediately and org for the surrender by evening. I asked whether the draft was approved. He said go ahead .Gen Jacob just got ready, told Air commodore Purushottam of Adv HQ and Staff Officer Col Khara to accompany him to Dhaka. Indian delegation boarded MI 4 from Dum dum, landed at Jessore and again took off for Dhaka. The team were told at Jessore to attend Lunch hosted by Niazi. When they landed at Dhaka, there was a squadron of Sabre F 86 lined up at Side runway but non operational as main runaway was badly cratered. Chief of Staff, Eastern Army was received by Brig Baqar Sidiqi and UN officials. They drove down to Command HQ of Pak Army. Enroute bands of Mukti fighters stopped us and argued with Indian team to kill Pak officers and Soldiers. Jacob explained to them War was over and they were going to make arrangement for surrender. With great difficulty, the Vehicle reached HQ and met Gen Niazi and handed over the draft surrender document read out to him.
“This is an unconditional surrender” Niazi objected after reading the document .He argued that he would discuss only the modalities of Ceasefire and safe withdrawal of Pak Army, Gen Jacob replied , “This was not unconditional “. It included protection of ethnic minorities, families, dignity of officers and men as per Geneva convention and later safe return to West Pakistan once approved .His advisors ,Maj Gen Jamshed, Rear Admiral Sharif ,Air commodore Imam, Farman Ali suggested him not to surrender. Gen Jacob had few hours left. Finally, he politely warned there was no choice. If he accepted ,it will save 1/4 of Pak Army and dignity and hope to go back home. Otherwise Indian Army would not be responsible to for safety of Pak troops , Civiliansand families. The offensive would resume immediately and Mukti fighers were ready to be leashed. General Jacob gave Niazi 30 minutes to decide and walked out of his office. He had played ace up his sleeve.
Suddenly, General Jacob felt alone contemplating if Niazi did not sign. He took out my havana Pipe and stuffed it with capstan aromatic Tobacco and calmly puffed pacing up and down. The enemy had almost 30000 troops and we had 3000 and rest were still far away approaching gradually. After half an hour, Jack entered his office. The document was still on his table and had tears in his eyes. Jacob asked General do you accept this instrument. He kept quiet and did not answer .He asked him three times , he kept staring with moist eyes. . So, Jacob finally picked up the draft and held high and said that he considered it as accepted and informed COAS and Army cdr, The War was over.
At 1600, Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora and his entourage in a fleet of Five MI 4 and Four Alloutte Helicopters landed at VIP area of Dhaka Airbase. Niazi and Jacob went to receive them. The following persons deplaned from heptrs ; Mrs Bhanti Aurora, Air Marshal Dewan, Vice Admiral Krishnan, Lt Gen Sagat Singh and Wing Cdr Khondkar. The motorcade headed for Race course, the venue of surrender ceremony . A Joint Guard of Honour was presented to Army Cdr. The surrender instrument were brought by Army cdr were placed in a folder on the table. Both of them signed at 1631 h on 16 Dec 1971. Niazi undid his euplettes and removed his .38 Revolver with lanyard and handed over to Gen Aurora with his wet eyes. The local crowd was shouting Joy Bangla and Pro India slogans, Slowly,they got wild. The ceremony was terminated and Niazi wassafely escorted and taken to Airport in a Army Jeep. Dhaka was put under control of Gen Sagat Singh Troops and surrender of balance of troops and despatch to safe POWS Camps. Gen Jacob headed for Dhaka Airport along with Army Cdr. Helicopters finally took off for Agartala at 1930 h.
The surrender at Dhaka at 1631 h on 16 Dec 1971 would remain the finest hour for India and Bangla Desh. The credit must go to the Valiant officers and soldiers of Indian Armed forces especially those who did not come back home and made supreme sacrifices. Four Paramvir Chakras ( Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, 2ndLt Arun Khetrpal, and L/Nk Albert Ekka) were awarded posthumously and Major Hoshiar Singh We sacrificed 1400 troops and 4000 were wounded in the course of battle .Due credit must also be given to the Iron lady Indian Prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, who snubbed US president Richard Nixon and challenged UN security council .Atal Bihari Vajpayee then leader of Opposition, General Sam Manekshaw ,then COAS. General J S Aurora Eastern Army Cdr, Lt Gen Rafael Jacob , Lt Gen T N Raina, 2 Corps cdr, Lt Gen Sagat Singh ,4 Corps cdr, Lt Gen M L Thapan, 33 Corps, Maj Gen Gurbax Singh / Nagar ,Cdr 101 Comn Zone. East Pakistan was obliterated from World Map and a New nation Bangla Desh was born in 1971.
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