After killing a few million East Pakistanis, General Tikka Khan fled to Rawalpindi, leaving a professional soldier, Lieutenant General A A K Niazi, in charge.

Niazi wanted to avoid a carnage, but could not disobey the orders from Rawalpindi asking him to hold on. For the Indians, it was simply a question of how to speed up the surrender process.

The Indians got just the break they were looking for thanks to Mukti Bahini intelligence.

'Early on December 14, the IAF got a message through the Mukti Bahini that an important meeting was scheduled at Governor House (now Banga Bhaban) that morning. Four MiG-21s from No 28 Squadron from Guwahati were tasked to attack the Governor's House. As Dr Malek, the puppet governor of then East Pakistan, along with his cabinet and high officials were in session, the MiGs came screaming down and fired rocket salvos right into the Darbar Hall.

The governor was so traumatised that he resigned then and there, and rushed to the Hotel Intercontinental (now Sheraton), to seek shelter under the UN Flag.

The Pakistani civil administration in the East ceased to exist.

Off and on, between December 12 and 14, IAF transport planes flew over Dhaka and dropped leaflets urging the Pak forces to surrender.

By December 15, at the request of the Pakistani commander in the east, all air operations ceased and the negotiation for the surrender of the Pakistani forces started.

On the morning of December 16, the IAF helicopter carrying the Indian negotiating team landed in Tejgaon,' wrote Air Commodore Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury (retired).

On the morning of December 16, Major General Jacob flew into Dhaka to persuade the East Pakistani army commander, Lieutenant General A A K Niazi, to accept an unconditional surrender. The Pakistanis still had about 24,000 troops to defend Dhaka. He could have held on, and some military experts in Pakistan have criticised him severely for accepting what is considered a 'shameful surrender'.

But Niazi needs to be applauded for saving the lives of thousands more and effectively rescuing the 93,000 Pakistani armed men who became prisoners of war and later returned unharmed to Pakistan.

Had the Pakistanis decided to fight on, they would have been massacred to the man. For General Niazi had been offered, and had accepted, fair treatment from the Indians, who promised to protect him and his soldiers.

The Mukti Bahini wanted the Indians to hand over the Pakistanis to them for trial and reprisals. If left to the Mukti Bahini and the general populace, the Pakistanis would have been butchered.

Not surprisingly, General Niazi accepted the surrender terms and signed the unconditional surrender document at a public ceremony in Dhaka on December 16, 1971.

The act of surrender marked the birth of a new nation: Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was released and returned triumphant to Dhaka after a brief stopover at New Delhi where he was warmly embraced by Indian leaders.

In Dhaka, a grand ceremony was held with the Indian Eastern Army commander, Lieutenant General J S Aurora, in attendance with Sheikh Mujib. This was the Indian armed forces' finest hour.

From a rag-tag, left over colonial remnaint, the three services had evolved into a new and formidable fighting force. The East Pakistan campaign will always be remembered as a model in innovation and serve to inspire generations of future soldiers.

The country's hero was Chief of Army Staff, General Sam Maneckshaw, who later went on to become the country's first Field Marshal. India had also won a great moral victory, for it had fought what was basically a liberation war.

And as the Bangladeshi crowds and guerilla fighters rejoiced in the streets of Dhaka, it was clear that yet another round in the battle for liberty and justice had just been won.

Image: Triumph at New Delhi after the war. From left to right, Air Chief Marshal P C Lal, Admiral S M Nanda, General Sam Manekshaw join Indian Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram. Notice the defence minister's closed fist, symbolically representing a knock-out punch against Pakistan.