rajkhalsa
06-04-2005, 01:10 AM
Act of valour
Tribute
The hero of the biggest surrender in India since the days of Chandragupta Maurya (http://www.the-week.com/25may15/currentevents_article3.htm)
By R. Prasannan
At about 6 p.m. on December 3, 1971, the phone in Jaggie’s office in Fort William, Kolkata, rang. Sam was at the other end from Delhi. Sam told him that Pakistani jets had bombed airfields in the western sector. Jaggie could unleash his fury on the east. The war had begun. Jaggie, Lt.-Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, general officer commanding India’s eastern army, drove down to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was in Kolkata. She took his hand and said with a smile, "Good luck to you, general."
http://www.the-week.com/25may15/Imgbox/Tribute.jpg
Lt.-Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora (1917-2005)
That night, it is said, Jaggie drank a toast to Gen. Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan, for choosing the time Jaggie had wanted for starting the war. He had wanted it in the first week of December, when East Bengal’s marshlands would be dry. The snow on the Himalayas would prevent any Chinese move to cut down from the north through the Siliguri corridor.
It was this assessment that army chief Gen. Sam Manekshaw had presented in April 1971 to the cabinet, which wanted immediate war. Aurora knew that Pakistan’s army in the east would be defending all the highways, and would have blasted the bridges across the numerous rivers to stop an Indian blitzkrieg. Aurora wanted to surround the Pakistani main body around Dhaka and block their exit towards Chittagong where the US Seventh Fleet would bail them out.
Everyone knew that in the eastern theatre Jaggie was racing against the Americans. The fleet had moved from the Gulf of Tomkin and made an exhibitionist pass through the Malacca Strait. Indira Gandhi called Moscow, which sent Soviet warships to tail the Americans. Admiral S.M. Nanda had joked that his naval captains had been told to invite the Americans for a drink on board. But behind the bravado, everyone was worried. They knew Jaggie’s eastern army could smash the Pakistani defences. But could he make it to Dhaka before the fleet arrived in Chittagong?
Aurora knew everything depended on the speed with which he reached Dhaka. He told his formation commanders: Avoid the highways, take the byways. The Pakistanis were surprised by Aurora’s tactics. The decisive moment came when the formations had to cross the Meghna. Aurora ordered helicopters to lift troops across. He had inserted enough engineering units to build pontoon bridges with lightning speed.
Aurora won the race by 36 hours. The US fleet steamed into the Bay of Bengal, far short of Chittagong, when Aurora’s forces were leaning on Dhaka. The final cut was delivered by the Air Force. With a degree of precision, seen only in the age of laser-guided weapons, they dropped free-fall bombs on the governor’s house. Lt.-Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, commander of Pakistan’s eastern army, asked the US consulate in Dhaka to sue for ceasefire. For some reason, Washington delayed conveying the plea to Delhi till December 15 evening.
Manekshaw said yes to ceasefire with surrender. Jaggi agreed. His reasoning: surrender was safer for the Pakistani soldiers. Bangla mobs would lynch them otherwise. On the afternoon of December 16, Aurora landed in Dhaka where Niazi welcomed him with a handshake and signed the surrender document. With tears welling up in his eyes, he took out his pistol, stripped the epaulette of rank from his right shoulder and surrendered them to his old school friend. Then he moved forward, held Aurora by his shoulder and rubbed his forehead against Aurora’s.
http://img66.echo.cx/img66/7032/15uw.jpg
Pakistani Army Comander in the Eastern Command, Lt. General A. A. K. Niazi (seated right), signing the Instrument of Surrender in front of General of Officer Commanding in Chief of India and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern Theatre, Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora. 16th December, 1971.
Historians say that the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani tropps was the biggest surrender in Indian history since the days of Chandragupta Maurya. The crowds took their hero on their shoulders; his troops called him Banglajit Singh. But Aurora’s greatness was that he knew when the military had to back off. Till India appointed a high commissioner, he visited Dhaka often, drove directly to Prime Minister Mujibur Rehman, flying his flag on the car and accompanied by military outriders. But after a high commissioner took charge, he withdrew the flag and outriders, and called on Rehman only in the company of high commission officials.
A Bangladeshi officer, Major Akhtar Ahmed, has commented in another context on this remarkable character of the Indian Army: "The civilian-Army relationship in India never failed to surprise me. In India, civilians respected the Army but they were not afraid of them. The Army also did not have the arrogant, overbearing attitude that we were used to in Pakistan." The hero of the 1971 war, who passed away on May 3, epitomised this spirit of the Indian Army.
Tribute
The hero of the biggest surrender in India since the days of Chandragupta Maurya (http://www.the-week.com/25may15/currentevents_article3.htm)
By R. Prasannan
At about 6 p.m. on December 3, 1971, the phone in Jaggie’s office in Fort William, Kolkata, rang. Sam was at the other end from Delhi. Sam told him that Pakistani jets had bombed airfields in the western sector. Jaggie could unleash his fury on the east. The war had begun. Jaggie, Lt.-Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, general officer commanding India’s eastern army, drove down to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was in Kolkata. She took his hand and said with a smile, "Good luck to you, general."
http://www.the-week.com/25may15/Imgbox/Tribute.jpg
Lt.-Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora (1917-2005)
That night, it is said, Jaggie drank a toast to Gen. Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan, for choosing the time Jaggie had wanted for starting the war. He had wanted it in the first week of December, when East Bengal’s marshlands would be dry. The snow on the Himalayas would prevent any Chinese move to cut down from the north through the Siliguri corridor.
It was this assessment that army chief Gen. Sam Manekshaw had presented in April 1971 to the cabinet, which wanted immediate war. Aurora knew that Pakistan’s army in the east would be defending all the highways, and would have blasted the bridges across the numerous rivers to stop an Indian blitzkrieg. Aurora wanted to surround the Pakistani main body around Dhaka and block their exit towards Chittagong where the US Seventh Fleet would bail them out.
Everyone knew that in the eastern theatre Jaggie was racing against the Americans. The fleet had moved from the Gulf of Tomkin and made an exhibitionist pass through the Malacca Strait. Indira Gandhi called Moscow, which sent Soviet warships to tail the Americans. Admiral S.M. Nanda had joked that his naval captains had been told to invite the Americans for a drink on board. But behind the bravado, everyone was worried. They knew Jaggie’s eastern army could smash the Pakistani defences. But could he make it to Dhaka before the fleet arrived in Chittagong?
Aurora knew everything depended on the speed with which he reached Dhaka. He told his formation commanders: Avoid the highways, take the byways. The Pakistanis were surprised by Aurora’s tactics. The decisive moment came when the formations had to cross the Meghna. Aurora ordered helicopters to lift troops across. He had inserted enough engineering units to build pontoon bridges with lightning speed.
Aurora won the race by 36 hours. The US fleet steamed into the Bay of Bengal, far short of Chittagong, when Aurora’s forces were leaning on Dhaka. The final cut was delivered by the Air Force. With a degree of precision, seen only in the age of laser-guided weapons, they dropped free-fall bombs on the governor’s house. Lt.-Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, commander of Pakistan’s eastern army, asked the US consulate in Dhaka to sue for ceasefire. For some reason, Washington delayed conveying the plea to Delhi till December 15 evening.
Manekshaw said yes to ceasefire with surrender. Jaggi agreed. His reasoning: surrender was safer for the Pakistani soldiers. Bangla mobs would lynch them otherwise. On the afternoon of December 16, Aurora landed in Dhaka where Niazi welcomed him with a handshake and signed the surrender document. With tears welling up in his eyes, he took out his pistol, stripped the epaulette of rank from his right shoulder and surrendered them to his old school friend. Then he moved forward, held Aurora by his shoulder and rubbed his forehead against Aurora’s.
http://img66.echo.cx/img66/7032/15uw.jpg
Pakistani Army Comander in the Eastern Command, Lt. General A. A. K. Niazi (seated right), signing the Instrument of Surrender in front of General of Officer Commanding in Chief of India and Bangladesh Forces in the Eastern Theatre, Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora. 16th December, 1971.
Historians say that the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani tropps was the biggest surrender in Indian history since the days of Chandragupta Maurya. The crowds took their hero on their shoulders; his troops called him Banglajit Singh. But Aurora’s greatness was that he knew when the military had to back off. Till India appointed a high commissioner, he visited Dhaka often, drove directly to Prime Minister Mujibur Rehman, flying his flag on the car and accompanied by military outriders. But after a high commissioner took charge, he withdrew the flag and outriders, and called on Rehman only in the company of high commission officials.
A Bangladeshi officer, Major Akhtar Ahmed, has commented in another context on this remarkable character of the Indian Army: "The civilian-Army relationship in India never failed to surprise me. In India, civilians respected the Army but they were not afraid of them. The Army also did not have the arrogant, overbearing attitude that we were used to in Pakistan." The hero of the 1971 war, who passed away on May 3, epitomised this spirit of the Indian Army.