Lt-General (retd) J.F.R. Jacob
India Today | December 18, 2010
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/stars%20and%20stripes/0/123567.html
In 1965, while commanding a brigade in the Samba sector near Jammu, I was inspecting a border violation along with the General Officer Commanding. Escorted only by an inspector and a CRPF constable, we were confronted by a group of Pakistani rangers who fired on us. The general took cover in the long grass. A bullet grazed the inspector's turban and he fell, feigning death. The constable was hit in the stomach; a bullet glanced off my walking stick and the Pakistan radio reported me killed. I stuffed my handkerchief into the constable's wound, took his .303 rifle and bandolier, and engaged the rangers with rapid fire. As they retreated into the nulla, I told the policemen that I would return with two companies of Gorkhas positioned some distance away. I dashed back and returned with the Gorkhas who cleared the area of the rangers. The inspector was slightly hurt. I carried constable Harphool back. Years later, I met him again; breaking ranks at a parade I was inspecting, he hugged me.
On the night of December 13, 1971, I was the chief of staff of the Kolkata-based Eastern Command tasked with planning the eastward thrust. Things weren't going too well for India in East Pakistan. There were rumblings from the Chinese in the north; the US Seventh Fleet led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was steaming through the Malacca Straits. The American resolution at the UN was vetoed by the Soviets who said there would be no more vetoes. We had advanced into East Pakistan to the outskirts of Dacca but we had nothing to show. The operational orders were to capture two ports, Chittagong and Khulna, nothing else. We did not take either Khulna or Chittagong but won the war.
In East Pakistan's capital, martial law administrator Lt-Gen AAK Niazi had declared, “Dacca will fall over my dead body” and was holding out for a UN-sponsored ceasefire. I knew of Niazi from the Second World War. He had served with distinction on the Burma front as a young officer and had even got a Military Cross for fighting the Japanese and earned the honorific ‘Tiger’. I could see the ‘it's-all-your-fault’, ‘your strategy’ fingers pointing at me. It was the longest, most crucial night in my life. Next morning, I received an intelligence intercept. There was a meeting of the East Pakistan administration being organised at Government House in Dacca. I had asked the air force to strafe the building. That turned the tide. Niazi’s will broke. He sent a ceasefire proposal that specified a withdrawal of armed forces and paramilitary and the government was to be handed over to the UN. There was no mention of India or the Indian Army in his proposals. The ceasefire proposals were outrightly rejected by Z.A. Bhutto in New York where he was to attend a Security Council meeting. Bhutto tore up the resolution, vowing to fight on. India announced a ceasefire the following day on December 15. The next morning, I was asked by Army chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to “just go and get a surrender”. I took along with me a draft instrument of surrender that I had sent to Delhi some days earlier, which the army chief had declined to confirm. At Dacca, I was met by UN representatives who asked me to go with them to take over the government. Fighting was still going on in the capital between the Mukti Bahini and the Pakistan army. I thanked them but regretted their offer and proceeded in a Pakistan army staff car accompanied by a Pakistani brigadier. A few hundred yards down the road, the Mukti Bahini fired at the car. I was unhurt. The guerillas wanted to kill the brigadier, but I persuaded them to let us proceed.
I walked into Niazi’s headquarters to meet him, carrying nothing other than my swagger stick and the surrender document. There were scowls all around. Niazi was calm. He was ready for a UN-brokered ceasefire. I presented him with my draft of the instrument of surrender. He turned pale and refused to sign it. I said I would not be able to guarantee the safety of him and his men from the mobs outside. I gave him 30 minutes to respond. He had 26,400 troops in Dacca; we some 3,000 outside. The UN was in session; he could have fought on for at least two more weeks and had he fought on for even one more day, the UN would have ordered a withdrawal and taken over the government.
Niazi broke down and wept. We had won. A ceasefire proposed under the UN was converted into an unconditional public surrender and signed after some four hours, the only public surrender in history at the Race Course. About 93,000 Pakistan Army soldiers surrendered to the Indian Army. A new nation Bangladesh was born and India emerged as a regional superpower. Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus had surrendered at Stalingrad with 91,000 troops.
The outcome of the Dacca incident set me thinking. Sometimes, things never go right. I've been injured in combat and I've seen brave men wet themselves under artillery fire. A hero to my mind is someone, though afraid, does not show fear. Human beings experience fear. It is human nature but a true hero just doesn't show it. When you are a leader of men, you rise above your fears and lead by personal example.
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BTW, this was a war in which the United States aided Pakistan.