Dhaka citizenry welcoming the liberating Army, Dec16, 1971, Photo credit: Col Pradeep Saxena (Retd)
Operation Deception
One of the best kept secret of the 1971 war was the fact that India laid out an elaborate deception game to beguile the enemy into believing that its war aim was to merely help the Mukti Bahini liberate Khulna, Chittagong and a few other districts, from where the independent Bangladesh movement would continue.
Inspired leaks to the international media hinted that India would help the Mukti Bahini create a liberated zone in East Pakistan and be satisfied with it.
However, when the war really began in December, many cantonments including Chittagong was simply bypassed. The orders had come that Dhaka, and only Dhaka would be the target. The order to troops was to bypass towns, use subsidiary tracks and head straight for Dhaka.
The Pakistani army, consequently never realised that in 14 days time, Indian troops along with Muktis would be at Dhaka's doorsteps.
Indians and the Mukti Bahini needed to be in Dhaka fast, before the United Nations acted and declared a ceasefire, before China could manouvere troops to intervene on behalf of Pakistan.
One way was to para drop troops at Tangail who would link up with infantry and tanks moving up from the border and head towards Dhaka. Captain P.K Ghosh of the Para Brigade and Kader 'Tiger' Siddiqi, a flambouyant Mukti Bahini commander laid out the drop zone in Tangail almost a month before the actual drop.
The elite 2 Para commandos were dropped at Tangail, famous for its sarees, on December 11, to take over Poongli bridge on the Lohajang river and to link up with Mukti Bahini coloumn led by the `Tiger.' The combined forces would act as a vanguard and await reinforcements by tanks and infantry before the final push to Dhaka. While this threat to Dhaka came from the North West, to the North East, 57 Mountain Division built up a position, again awaiting a link up with more reinforcements for the final push.
Troops of the IV Corp coming up from the East were heli-lifted from Brahmanbaria across the Meghna river in an operation codenamed `Cactus Lily`, bypassing strong Pakistani defences at Ashuganj and at a destroyed bridge over the giant river.
Dhaka was thus caught in a giant mouse trap laid out by the combined forces. Leading to Gen (later Field Marshal) Sam Manekshaw's famous All India Radio announcement that Pakistani forces in the city were surrounded by air, sea and land and had no option but to surrender and the city's ultimate liberation on December 16, 1971.
Tibetans who fought for Bangladesh
Among the unsung heros in the war in Bangladesh, was an elite force of 3,000 Tibetans led by a Tibetan Dapon (equivalent to Brigadier). These men were trained in cutting communications, blowing up bridges and other acts of sabotage behind enemy lines. The Tibetan commandos, armed with Bulgarian AK 47 and Tibetan knives, were on direct orders from Delhi, often bypassing the Eastern Command of the Indian Army. Among their aims was to destroy Kaptai dam and some bridges around it. The whole operation was codenamed `Mountain Eagle.'
At one stage, there was a move to use the Tibetans to capture Chittagong, but since these men did not have artillery support or airlift, they were instead asked to block units of the Pakistan army from escaping into Burma. They are believed to have helped check Pakistan's 97 Independent Brigade and 2 Commando Battalion in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Few know of the Tibetan `Phantom' army, whose dream must have been to liberate their own homeland but who fought for Bangladesh. This secret force was drawn from India's eilte Special Frontier Force.
Niazi's Fears
A sidelight of the war's end, was the near death of Gen A.A.K Niazi, who even after surrendering remained scared of losing his life: At Dhaka, where Niazi was to eventually surrender after last minute attempts to get the international community to broker a ceasfire failed, `Tiger' Siddiqui reached Dhaka airport with a handful of Muktis, at around the time Lt Gen `Jake' Jacob of the eastern Army was negotiating with Niazi the surrender terms. Indian Army lore has it that Siddiqui may well have shot Niazi long before the surrender was signed, if he had his way. Jacob managed to sweet talk that fiesty `gent' into letting things happen as they did. After the surrender ceremony, it took a strong contingent of Indian soldiers to save the General's skin from Mukti Bahini irregulars who weren't exactly in love with him.
See Also: 14 Days War: A soldier Remembers
18 comments:
Most informative, Jayanta. The scale of subterfuge indulged in by India, fairly boggles the mind. Unknown to me totally, was also the role of the Tibetan soldiers who took their orders directly from Delhi!
This was probably the finest dovetailed operation in modern Indian history and most certainly, Indira Gandhi's finest hour!
Thank you for these nuggets of information, once again!
Thanks Kalyanda, In an article `Not Their Own Wars,'A Tibetan writer, Tashi Dhundup claims : "Indira Gandhi in the lead-up to the SFF's deployment wired a message to the Tibetan fighters, conveyed through their Indian commander: 'We cannot compel you to fight a war for us,' Gandhi wrote, "but the fact is that General A. A. K. Niazi is treating the people of East Pakistan very badly. India has to do something about it. In a way, it is similar to the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans in Tibet, we are facing a similar situation. It would be appreciated if you could help us fight the war for liberating the people of Bangladesh." These men apparently agreed voluntarily. Since we deny their existence, there can never be any official recognition, medals or honours for these brave men.
Really good. full of anecdotes and information that is not widely known. But all this deserves recalling.
It was not just Indira Gandhi's finest hour -- it was India's finest hour too. It was the first decisive military victory in centuries.
Gen.Niazi got almost shot at while travelling in a civilian aircraft,to avoid being detected. IAF fighter pilot Neb (not sure of his rank at that time) did locate Niazi's aircraft, but was prevented from shooting down a civilian aircraft. He narrated this tale to me in an interview in 1986 (Hindustan Times, Special Supplement on Air Force Day.)
The last para, Jayanta, abruptly refers to Siddiqui. I assume the reference is to Lt. Col (rtd)A R Siddiqui, who was on Niazi's staff who later wrote a slim book "Witness To Surrender."
Siddiui here refers to Kader Siddiqui, the Mukti Bahini leader, who is referred to above in the context of helping lay out the paratroopers' drop zone.
Kader went underground once more after Sheikh Mujib was killed in 1975 and started a movement against the Zia regime. He remained a hero in his country, but later lost some of his sheen when he was involved in some controversies.
A very good piece on our Liberation War. I too did not know about the existence or the role of the Tibetan fighters. They remained unsung in our glowious history of War of Independence. For Mahendra da, it was Tiger Siddiqui, who is Abdul Kader Siddiqui, who took up resistance in the Tangail area when the fight started. His other brotrher Abdul Latif Sidddiqui, is a Cabinet minister in the present regime. He holds the post of Jutre and Textiles. I recently read an interview published in Bengali daily "Prothom Alo" where General Jacob had admitted that the Pakistnai General Niai would have been shot dead had he not arrived a few minutes earlier at the Tejgaon Airport to talk to him as to how the surrender would be organised. According to Jacob, I ordered Siddiqui to leave the place at once or face consequence. He also instructed two of his body guards to aim rifle at Siddiqui. "Siddiqui made no comments and left the place with his people," jacob quoted Prothom Alo as saying. Thanks for the piece. Cheers. Sabu
I stand corrected, and enlightened. It was Baghha Siddiqui then. I mistook the reference to the one of Siddiq Salik, who was Pak Eastern Command's PR man, from the ISPR. It was a fascinating book, some thought it was dispassionate, others found it biased.
On Page 110 of his book, Siddiq talks of Niazi, who had volunteered to take over the Eastern Command after many seniors had refused, being confident of his defences "like four fingers of a hand", whose soldiers would fight to the last. Siddiq finds the similie 'fascinating', but did not believe it would actually work. But Niazi was sustaining on "loads of bawdy jokes and chicken tikkas."
There are references to Niazi adding "offensive" plans to include attacks on Agartala and bombing of Calcutta. How wrong he and his superiors at the GHQ proved.
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This slimeball shit Kader Siddiqui bayoneted at least three helpless men to death after they had been beaten.
He's a coward and a piece of trash.
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