Bangladesh Bangladesh celebrates its 53rd Victory Day

[Afif]

On This Day at 5:01pm (Bangladesh time) Pakistan Army Eastern Command surrendered to the Allied Force at Dhaka, brining an end to the nine-month-long bloodstained War of Liberation which claimed hundreds of thousands lives. It was the moment of final fulfilment of our independence and sovereignty as People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Pakistan's Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi signing Instrument of Surrender.


Pakistani Instrument of Surrender

The Pakistani Instrument of Surrender (Bengali: পাকিস্তানের আত্মসমর্পণের দলিল, romanised: Pākistānēr Atmasamarpaṇēr Dalil) was a legal document signed between India (alongside the Provisional Government of Bangladesh) and Pakistan to end the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Per the trilateral agreement, the Pakistani government surrendered the Armed Force Eastern Command, thereby enabling the establishment of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh over the territory of East Pakistan.


Text of the Instrument

”The PAKISTAN Eastern Command agree to surrender all PAKISTAN Armed Forces in BANGLA DESH to Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Indian and BANGLA DESH forces in the Eastern Theatre. This surrender includes all PAKISTAN land, air and naval forces as also all para-military forces and civil armed forces. These forces will lay down their arms and surrender at the places where they are currently located to the nearest regular troops under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.
The PAKISTAN Eastern Command shall come under the orders of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA as soon as this instrument has been signed. Disobedience of orders will be regarded as a breach of the surrender terms and will be dealt with in accordance with the accepted laws and usages of war. The decision of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA will be final, should any doubt arise as to the meaning or interpretation of the surrender terms.

Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA gives a solemn assurance that personnel who surrender shall be treated with dignity and respect that soldiers are entitled to in accordance with the provisions of the GENEVA Convention and guarantees the safety and well-being of all PAKISTAN military and para-military forces who surrender. Protection will be provided to foreign nationals, ethnic minorities and personnel of WEST PAKISTAN origin by the forces under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.”


Signed:

(Jagjit Singh Aurora) Lieutenant-General General Officer Commanding in Chief Indian and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern Theatre

(Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi) Lieutenant-General Martial Law Administrator Zone B and Commander Eastern Command (Pakistan)

16 December 1971"

PAK Soldiers laying down their arms


It all started with the Deceleration of Independence on 26 March 1971, and ended on 16 December 1971 with Total Victory.


”Today, I am free to share the unbounded joy of freedom with my fellow countrymen. We have won the freedom in an epic liberation struggle,”

“The ultimate achievement of this struggle is the creation of an independent, sovereign, People’s Republic of Bangladesh of which my people declared me as the President while I was a prisoner in a condemned cell awaiting the execution of a sentence of hanging.”

“No people has had to pay as high a price in human life and suffering for the freedom that has been exerted from the people of Bangladesh. I cannot wait a single moment to return to my people.”

–Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 8th January 1972 after his release from Pakistani prison.



@Isa Khan @F-6 enthusiast @yf120 @TR_123456 @Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Gary @Ryder et al.

 

[TR_123456]

Congratulations to the Bangladeshi people!

 

[Nilgiri]

Happy Victory day to Bangladesh. Joy Bangla!

 

[Joe Shearer]

On a very personal note:
9 out of the 13 are Bengali.
Two out of those in your picture area also here.

 

[Afif]

@Joe Shearer you have to tell us of that day, and the nine months before it. I have been waiting to ask you. You were a young man, what you saw, read and heard then and later. And what was your experience of it. Even if it is a brief summery, you almost owe us (to our generation) It won't be fair if you keep all those stories to yourself.

 

[hellfire2006]

On This Day at 5:01pm (Bangladesh time) Pakistan Army Eastern Command surrendered to the Allied Force at Dhaka, brining an end to the nine-month-long bloodstained War of Liberation which claimed hundreds of thousands lives. It was the moment of final fulfilment of our independence and sovereignty as People’s Republic of Bangladesh.


View attachment 63949
Pakistan's Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi signing Instrument of Surrender.


Pakistani Instrument of Surrender

The Pakistani Instrument of Surrender (Bengali: পাকিস্তানের আত্মসমর্পণের দলিল, romanised: Pākistānēr Atmasamarpaṇēr Dalil) was a legal document signed between India (alongside the Provisional Government of Bangladesh) and Pakistan to end the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Per the trilateral agreement, the Pakistani government surrendered the Armed Force Eastern Command, thereby enabling the establishment of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh over the territory of East Pakistan.


Text of the Instrument

”The PAKISTAN Eastern Command agree to surrender all PAKISTAN Armed Forces in BANGLA DESH to Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Indian and BANGLA DESH forces in the Eastern Theatre. This surrender includes all PAKISTAN land, air and naval forces as also all para-military forces and civil armed forces. These forces will lay down their arms and surrender at the places where they are currently located to the nearest regular troops under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.
The PAKISTAN Eastern Command shall come under the orders of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA as soon as this instrument has been signed. Disobedience of orders will be regarded as a breach of the surrender terms and will be dealt with in accordance with the accepted laws and usages of war. The decision of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA will be final, should any doubt arise as to the meaning or interpretation of the surrender terms.

Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA gives a solemn assurance that personnel who surrender shall be treated with dignity and respect that soldiers are entitled to in accordance with the provisions of the GENEVA Convention and guarantees the safety and well-being of all PAKISTAN military and para-military forces who surrender. Protection will be provided to foreign nationals, ethnic minorities and personnel of WEST PAKISTAN origin by the forces under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.”


Signed:

(Jagjit Singh Aurora) Lieutenant-General General Officer Commanding in Chief Indian and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern Theatre

(Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi) Lieutenant-General Martial Law Administrator Zone B and Commander Eastern Command (Pakistan)

16 December 1971"



View attachment 63950
PAK Soldiers laying down their arms


It all started with the Deceleration of Independence on 26 March 1971, and ended on 16 December 1971 with Total Victory.


”Today, I am free to share the unbounded joy of freedom with my fellow countrymen. We have won the freedom in an epic liberation struggle,”

“The ultimate achievement of this struggle is the creation of an independent, sovereign, People’s Republic of Bangladesh of which my people declared me as the President while I was a prisoner in a condemned cell awaiting the execution of a sentence of hanging.”

“No people has had to pay as high a price in human life and suffering for the freedom that has been exerted from the people of Bangladesh. I cannot wait a single moment to return to my people.”

–Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 8th January 1972 after his release from Pakistani prison.



@Isa Khan @F-6 enthusiast @yf120 @TR_123456 @Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Gary @Ryder et al.

Congratulations to our bengali friends
Jai Hind !
Joy Bangla !

 

[Afif]

@Joe Shearer you have to tell us of that day, and the nine months before it. I have been waiting to ask you. You were a young man, what you saw, read and heard then and later. And what was your experience of it. Even if it is a brief summery, you almost owe us (to our generation) It won't be fair if you keep all those stories to yourself.

@Nilgiri please join my campaign. This is soooo important. Even if we need to 'force' @Joe Shearer........

 

[Gary]

On This Day at 5:01pm (Bangladesh time) Pakistan Army Eastern Command surrendered to the Allied Force at Dhaka, brining an end to the nine-month-long bloodstained War of Liberation which claimed hundreds of thousands lives. It was the moment of final fulfilment of our independence and sovereignty as People’s Republic of Bangladesh.


View attachment 63949
Pakistan's Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi signing Instrument of Surrender.


Pakistani Instrument of Surrender

The Pakistani Instrument of Surrender (Bengali: পাকিস্তানের আত্মসমর্পণের দলিল, romanised: Pākistānēr Atmasamarpaṇēr Dalil) was a legal document signed between India (alongside the Provisional Government of Bangladesh) and Pakistan to end the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Per the trilateral agreement, the Pakistani government surrendered the Armed Force Eastern Command, thereby enabling the establishment of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh over the territory of East Pakistan.


Text of the Instrument

”The PAKISTAN Eastern Command agree to surrender all PAKISTAN Armed Forces in BANGLA DESH to Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Indian and BANGLA DESH forces in the Eastern Theatre. This surrender includes all PAKISTAN land, air and naval forces as also all para-military forces and civil armed forces. These forces will lay down their arms and surrender at the places where they are currently located to the nearest regular troops under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.
The PAKISTAN Eastern Command shall come under the orders of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA as soon as this instrument has been signed. Disobedience of orders will be regarded as a breach of the surrender terms and will be dealt with in accordance with the accepted laws and usages of war. The decision of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA will be final, should any doubt arise as to the meaning or interpretation of the surrender terms.

Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA gives a solemn assurance that personnel who surrender shall be treated with dignity and respect that soldiers are entitled to in accordance with the provisions of the GENEVA Convention and guarantees the safety and well-being of all PAKISTAN military and para-military forces who surrender. Protection will be provided to foreign nationals, ethnic minorities and personnel of WEST PAKISTAN origin by the forces under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA.”


Signed:

(Jagjit Singh Aurora) Lieutenant-General General Officer Commanding in Chief Indian and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern Theatre

(Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi) Lieutenant-General Martial Law Administrator Zone B and Commander Eastern Command (Pakistan)

16 December 1971"



View attachment 63950
PAK Soldiers laying down their arms


It all started with the Deceleration of Independence on 26 March 1971, and ended on 16 December 1971 with Total Victory.


”Today, I am free to share the unbounded joy of freedom with my fellow countrymen. We have won the freedom in an epic liberation struggle,”

“The ultimate achievement of this struggle is the creation of an independent, sovereign, People’s Republic of Bangladesh of which my people declared me as the President while I was a prisoner in a condemned cell awaiting the execution of a sentence of hanging.”

“No people has had to pay as high a price in human life and suffering for the freedom that has been exerted from the people of Bangladesh. I cannot wait a single moment to return to my people.”

–Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 8th January 1972 after his release from Pakistani prison.



@Isa Khan @F-6 enthusiast @yf120 @TR_123456 @Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Gary @Ryder et al.

Happy victory day brother

 

[Joe Shearer]

@Joe Shearer you have to tell us of that day, and the nine months before it. I have been waiting to ask you. You were a young man, what you saw, read and heard then and later. And what was your experience of it. Even if it is a brief summery, you almost owe us (to our generation) It won't be fair if you keep all those stories to yourself.

For us, all this started on the 7th of March, 1971, when Mujib gave his call for autonomy, for independence, on Ramna Maidan.

At that time, my father was a very senior policeman in Calcutta, and we lived in a house, five of us, including we three siblings, in a bungalow that, quaintly, had been the first residence that my newly-wed parents occupied back in the day; it then belonged to another designated officer. I was then in college, the younger two still teenagers in school.
We read about the speech in the papers, but none of us had actually heard it. Then a distant cousin of my father turned up with the entire speech tape-recorded, and played it for us, my mother and I. We are Dhaka people, my mother was a Barisali, so this speech was awesome. This cousin features later. For that moment, it seemed that a wonderful new day had dawned, and that a province that had been ruled remotely, and that was set against us permanently, with a sour and bitter relationship, with no traffic between the two parts of Bengal, might open up. It was a wonderful three weeks.

On the 25th, the murdering began. First, Mujib was arrested and taken away to an unknown destination. Then squads went out and started putting down the Awami League, and all this came to us by the printed newspapers, The Stateman still being active and seriously listened to, the others, Ananda Bazar and I think the Amrita Bazar being in total hysteria about the killings. What we never anticipated, whether as ignorant civilians influenced by what we read in the papers or as concerned government adminstrators completely in the dark, and unsure what to do, because unsure of what was coming.

Then they came, in their millions.

 

[Afif]

Please continue........I want to hear more!

 

[Joe Shearer]

The refugees started trickling in from, I think, late April or early May. The rains had not started, so they made good speed, but when they landed, they were destitute. Men, women and children, oh dear, in very poor condition, starving and exhausted, some just collapsing after they got past the thin line of pickets on the Indian side.

There is a bit of history here. In 1965, we lived in Barrackpore, and there were three armed police battalions, around 500 constables each, armed with rifles, not, like normal policemen, with smooth bore breach-loading muskets. These three battalions were all that patrolled the borders at that time. On the other side, there was a formidable line-up, five East Bengal Rifles, fully the match of our fairly peaceful armed police constables, whose heaviest arms were Bren guns of a WW2 vintage. We also had a very well-trained para-military force, one battalion strong, named the Eastern Frontier Rifles, all being Darjeeling Gorkhas.

The EBR had similar machine guns, and 2" mortars as well. Fortunately they had to cover the entire East Pakistan border, that included Meghalaya, a bit of Assam (Cachar, to be exact), and then Tripura and what later became Mizoram. That had its own burdens, and since neither the Indian Army nor the Pakistan Army bothered with the security of the East Pakistan border, 1965 was punctuated by a tiny little micro-war, when these para-military forces clashed. The EBR, under a Pathan gentleman named Brigadier Torgul, just about held its own, and in turn, held its ground and did not try to penetrate Indian territory (there were incursions near Berubari, a traditional trouble-spot, but it was expected, and nobody lost his head and over-reacted). After the Tashkent Pact, Mrs. Gandhi, who had succeeded the late Prime Minister Shastri, asked K. F. Rustamji of the Madhya Pradesh dacoit-hunting police, to organise a Border Guard, and the Border Security Force was born.

In 1971, they were still a very small force, especially on the East Pakistan frontiers, and they were also not the cynical and corrupt force that they became later. The refugees found it easy to march right past them; after a few half-hearted attempts at the beginning, the BSF realised that it was futile, trying to stop a raging river in flood with a toothpick, and allowed people to flood in.

Pakistan was deeply worried about hosting 2 million Afghans. The total number of East Bengalis was just short of 10 million.

 

[Jackdaws]

I did read this -

Pakistani troops who surrendered were extremely scared of retaliation by the Banglas and despite surrendering some of them were allowed to retain small arms which isn't the case with surrendering troops. It was the Indian Army which was preventing them being lynched by the mobs

 

[Joe Shearer]

West Bengal was in an uproar.

It seemed that a callous central government, fed up with, first, our putting a joint-front ( = dominated by the Communist Party - Marxist) in place of the long-standing Congress government, second, our being the site of the Naxalite armed rebellion, that they had decided to do nothing for the relief of the refugees. Feelings were very strong, of Bengal being neglected, and of no attempt to care for the refugees.

Actually we were wrong.

We were wrong, first, in thinking the centre didn't care for Bengalis.

What we did not know was that Indira Gandhi had embarked on a series of desperate missions to different world capitals, to try and get some support from them.

Support in what way? To stop the killing - it went on right till the last moment, in the teeth of Indian troops when they started moving into Bangladesh in December. To support the poor refugees to go home again, with perhaps a little to get them by until they could harvest some emergency crops to keep body and soul together.

While we grew restless, and humiliated, and were dying to see some action, Mrs. G had gone and met practically every world leader, and explained the Indian predicament to every one.

We were wrong, second, in thinking nobody was doing anything. Quietly, behind the scenes, the central government had sent down a man to set up refugee camps right around the perimeter of Bangladesh (or East Pakistan, as it then was), from Canning in southern 24 Parganas, just on the edge of the Sundarbans, to parts of Tripura, the patch from Agartala to Belonia, opposite Comilla. Mizoram abutted the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and there was no killing or repression there, as the Pakistan Army and ISI had been using the CHT to set up Mizo armed camps, where they could cross the border, and rest, re-arm, get fresh munitions and go back to fight the Indian forces once again.

That was the man, second from left, with his hand on my father's shoulder, Pran Nath Luther, apparently a Punjabi, who set up and managed all the hundreds of camps for the refugees.

The others, left to right, are:
My father, P. N. Luther, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora, General M. A. G. Osmani (whom my father had met when the General was with the 14th Army, in Cox's Bazar in 1944) and Maj. Gen. J. F. R. Jacob.

 

[Anmdt]

Happy victory day to all Bangladeshi people.

 

[Joe Shearer]

This is what happened through that horrible period from around May to December of 1971.

The great fear was of losing 2 to 3 million refugees due to cholera and typhoid. Those of us who managed to avoid police patrols, trekked over paddy-fields and reached the camps saw that there was barely enough to keep the refugees housed, out of the rain, and on dry ground, sheltered by tents, with daily rations (India was then still going through a food shortage, and PL 480 had just stopped; during the 1965 conflict with Pakistan, Prime Minister Shastri had appealed to Indian people to miss a meal a day, to provide enough for our jawans).

That was the time when the sensitive part of the western world promoted the Concert for Bangladesh, that someone more musically minded in the forum should present. A lot of money was raised, it was never enough, and food was short right till the end.

The epidemic did not happen.

A task force was set up, and miraculous gadgets, that performed injections without needles, and millions of people were inoculated. This should have got awards for those responsible. Nobody remembers it today. It was one of the finest achievements at that time, and we should all of us remember it.

In December, to our utter shock, the fighting began.

 

[Joe Shearer]

All this while, we were busy, as a family, shifting out of 2, Loudon Street. My father had been fired for refusing to toe the line for a Congress government that had come in, and we had moved into a four room, triple-stories building, our quarters being on the first and second floors, at 7/1 Rainey Park.

Nobody realises that the Indian reaction to the events in Bangladesh were run entirely by the External Affairs Ministry. They did not allow the Internal Affairs Ministry or the State Government, that was then under President's Rule, anywhere near the problem.

To our utter astonishment, we were, as a family, kept out of the ground floor when we moved in. The ground floor also was two rooms, and a small space outside, between the room door and the common front door, which had a table and one of those ancient black phones with a rotating dial. Soon after we moved in upstairs, a guest came to be lodged in those two rooms. He was Mehdi Masud, who had been sent by the Pakistani Embassy to open up the Pakistani consulate in Calcutta, that had been taken over by the Bangladeshis, and refused to the Pakistani authorities who claimed it. Masud was detained, and lodged in those two rooms, and made his permitted calls to Delhi, morning and evening, "Hello, Sir, Bas sab kuchh thik thak hai, Han-ji, khana mildeya, koi cheez di zaroorat nahin, shammi phone karangey." For a murdering Pakistani, he was a normal person, and never failed to return our greetings when we met him outside his room. He went back, of course, in December 1971, back to Delhi.

During that period, two hijackers had held up an Indian Airlines plane and taken it into Pakistan. India promptly banned overflight over Indian territory. The Pakistan Army had to ship in meagre reinforcements by plane via Colombo. Inside East Pakistan, the situation was really bad. Slaughter at an unbelievable scale continued, killing being instant for men, slow and protracted and agonising for the women. The Mukti Bahini was getting bottled up under the sheer pressure of the killing, and only Tiger Siddiqi in the north-west, in the Meghalaya, Cachar, Tripura angle was really effective.

All who remained alive of the Awami League leadership had fled to India. Theatre Road, or Shakespeare Sarani, was where they were housed, under tight security. Lt. General Niazi was going around saying he would conquer West Bengal, take over Calcutta, and hang the rebels leadership. Everyone was tense and angry.

In September month-end, the rains, the monsoon stopped. The ground started drying. What we didn't know was our family friend, 'Jake' Jacob had been hard at work, and there was to be explosive action in less than 8 weeks.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I will be back in an hour.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Through October and November, the tension grew. While some very few got through the police cordons around the camps - remember that an epidemic was expected momentarily, that several million deaths were expected momentarily - most of the rest of us were identified, arrested, and put on a bus back to town.

Meanwhile, my father had begun to stay out late and was obviously up to something.

By then, we had become used to the total inactivity of Indian forces, other than the frantic efforts of the central government, led by Mrs. Gandhi, to convince the rest of the world to come to the rescue. Nobody seemed to care. She went to the USA hoping that Nixon would tell the Pakistani administration to calm down, normalise the situation and bring down the temperature - no luck.

Then - an explosion.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Two weeks of intense fighting followed. Most of the details were unknown at that time, but got detailed attention later. On the 17th, the papers were full of the surrender ceremony, and that iconic picture, and so here we are again, once more.

So. Who's who?

​

Standing: Joe's Mum, P. N. Luther, Maya Roy (w/o Siddhartha Shankar Ray), Arora's wife, Buchi Das (daughter of son of C. R. Das), Arora, Osmani, Siddhartha Shankar Ray (son of daughter of C. R. Das), Jake, Joe's Dad.

Kneeling: Oooh, that handsome debbil, his baby sister, his baby brother.

 

[Nilgiri]

On a very personal note:
9 out of the 13 are Bengali.
Two out of those in your picture area also here.

View attachment 63964

About time you introduced the forum to this picture

@Nilgiri please join my campaign. This is soooo important. Even if we need to 'force' @Joe Shearer........

Request well and you shall receive well. Joe holds a number of topics close to his heart....no compulsion needed at all on these.