Pakistani troops surrendered to allied Indian and Bangladesh forces on December 16, 1971 evening after a brief negotiation, the prelude of which has been sketched by a former Indian military captain describing first moments of victor’s interactions with the defeated army.
The then young captain Nirbhay Sharma, who subsequently became a lieutenant general, said he was in the first group of Indian soldiers to step into Dhaka city as part of advanced allied troops.
Decades after the episode he came up with a signed memoir, describing a little known story of events of the first hours of the day, acknowledging that Bangladesh’s freedom fighter Abdul Kader Siddique also accompanied the advanced allied troops.
Sharma, who later served as India’s governor of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, said they had entered “Dacca” through the Mirpur Bridge to make their way to Pakistan’s military headquarters.
But some events upset their first attempt to reach Pakistani commander Lieutenant General AAK Niazi, to whom they, however, reached subsequently carrying a message from Major General Gandharv Nagra, India’s general officer commanding for 1010 area.
Sharma said on their second journey, this time along with his commanding officer of India’s 2 Para Battalion Colonel Pannu and few others, they succeeded in reaching the message, again as the “first troops” to enter the enemy held Dhaka Cantonment.বিস্তারিত