AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 229 of 332 the Commander-in-Chief of Eastern Command, initially sceptical, came to support and reinforce Jacob’s ideas. On the morning of 16 Dec, Maj Gen Jacob flew to Dacca in a single helicopter, accompanied only by a single staff officer, carrying a draft of the Instrument of Surrender. He was met by representatives of the UN, with offers to arrange the withdrawal of the Pakistani military and Pakistani civilians. Gen Jacob declined their offer. The Indian Army was on the outskirts of the city, but not yet in the city in any strength. There was sporadic fighting in the city between the Mukti Bahini and the Pakistan Army. The Pakistan Army staff car which met Jacob at the airport was stopped by angry Mukti Bahini fighters, on the way to Niazi’s headquarters. The Mukti Bahinis calmed down only on recognising Jacob’s olive green Indian Army uniform. They demanded custody of the Pakistani officer in the car, who had come to the airport to receive Gen Jacob; and it took all Gen Jacob’s persuasive powers to get the Pakistani safely past them. A few members of the international press also caught up with Gen Jacob. Clearly focussed on his task, Gen Jacob brushed them off. The Time magazine correspondent reported dramatically that Jacob had threatened to shoot them. Gen Jacob scoffs at the accusation, saying he didn’t carry a firearm on this trip (which speaks volumes to his confidence — even if partly-assumed). By the time he reached Lt Gen Niazi’s office, Major General Gandharv Nagra, commanding the Indian force approaching Dacca from the north, had already secured entry, by trading on old connections — he and Niazi had served together at the pre- Independence Indian Military Academy, and Nagra had served later as the Military Advisor at our High Commission to Pakistan. Early that morning, Nagra had simply sent a note to Niazi, addressing him by his first name “Abdullah”, and offering sympathy like an old friend. Niazi had sent an escort, with orders that Nagra be escorted into Dacca and to his office. A Pakistani officer present at the time wrote of Nagra that “the Indian general entered Dacca with a handful of soldiers and a lot of pride … It fell quietly like a heart patient”. (In his own memoir, Gen Jacob makes it clear he was not best pleased with Gen Nagra’s initiative; perhaps because he had exceeded his brief. But much of the Bangladesh victory was in fact due to imaginative officers on the ground, up to and including Lt Gen Sagat Singh, exceeding their brief. Whatever the reason, the sheer confidence and positive body language with which Gen Nagra had swaggered into Dacca clearly added to the cumulative disintegration of Gen Niazi’s own confidence.)