I had set the surrender stage at Race Course: Indian Brig
BSS
16th December, 2020 08:51:26
Bangladesh emerged as the free capital of an independent nation as Pakistani military commander Lieutenant General AAK Niazi signed the document conceding defeat in world’s first ever such surrender ceremony in public on December 16, 1971.
But it remained largely unknown how the stage was set in haste and who was entrusted with the task until 2012 when an Indian war veteran, Brigadier General Sant Singh, told BSS reporter he was the man who arranged the ceremony.
Singh, whom the freedom fighters in 1971 fondly called “Brigadier Babaji” because of his attire – typical Shikh turban and beard and affectionate attitude – was talking to this reporter on the sidelines of a ceremony in Dhaka where he along with several other foreigners were awarded with “Friends of Liberation War Honour”.
I had set the surrender stage at Race Course: Indian Brig
759
By Anisur Rahman
DHAKA, Dec 16, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh emerged as the free capital of an independent nation as Pakistani military commander Lieutenant General AAK Niazi signed the document conceding defeat in world’s first ever such surrender ceremony in public on December 16, 1971.
But it remained largely unknown how the stage was set in haste and who was entrusted with the task until 2012 when an Indian war veteran, Brigadier General Sant Singh, told BSS reporter he was the man who arranged the ceremony.
Singh, whom the freedom fighters in 1971 fondly called “Brigadier Babaji” because of his attire – typical Shikh turban and beard and affectionate attitude – was talking to this reporter on the sidelines of a ceremony in Dhaka where he along with several other foreigners were awarded with “Friends of Liberation War Honour”.
VICTORY DAY 2020
Members of the Mukti Bahini preparing for their next guerilla attack. Photo: Archives
Bangladesh belongs to a select group of countries that fought their way to independence. We won our freedom by winning a fierce nine-month Liberation War against a very well trained, well-armed Pakistan Army. We remember with solemnity and gratitude the sacrifice of the millions of our people who achieved martyrdom, who were assaulted, brutalised and raped by the occupation army and had to flee their homes during the war. The occupying Pakistani Army brutalised us because they wanted us to surrender to them. Instead, the Pakistani Army s 93,000 soldiers laid down their arms on December 16, 1971, in one of the largest surrenders in history. On that day, Bangabandhu s Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971, became a reality.