BRUTAL BIRTH OF BANGLADESH PART THREE
With Indian troops and tanks massed outside the capital, General Niazi had no choice but to surrender. If he didn’t, India’s air superiority would have decimated his remaining forces
In December 1971 the nation that used to be East Pakistan was attacked from three sides by the Indian military. The air force cleared the skies of hostile aircraft in just two days, while the navy successfully imposed a tight blockade over the Bay of Bengal.
Just ten days after commencing hostilities, Indian commanders completed their encirclement of East Pakistan’s capital, Dhaka. By 13 December the air force’s jets were busy making sport of the Pakistanis still holed up in the city. The few token anti-aircraft guns on the ground hardly bothered the MiGs and Sukhois dancing in the sky.
At the head of the Indian army in Bangladesh was the Sikh commander Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora. He was a decorated veteran with a soldiering career that stretched back to the days of the British Empire, which wasn’t uncommon among the top brass of both India and Pakistan at the time. They had all been comrades in arms once but had become rivals after the partition of their respective countries in 1947.
Pakistan’s garrison in Bangladesh was under the
