Liberation Diary: Pakistani troops held while fleeing on vessels

December 10, 1971, was an eventful day, with “Mitro Bahini” (Indo-Bangla forces) making big gains in the north. 

Mitro Bahini and Mukti-Bahini jointly carried out operations in Dinajpur, Rangpur and Syedpur, leaving the Pakistani occupation forces detached from each other.

Rangpur and Dinajpur were liberated then. Mymensingh was freed on this day in 1971. 

Meanwhile, several thousand Pakistani troops while fleeing on vessels from then East Pakistan were captured by Mitro Bahini. 

The then General Officer Commanding Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army, Lt. Gen Ameer Abdullah Khan Niazi, too, tried to escape to avoid defeat. But BBC leaked his plan. 

He took shelter at the Hotel Intercontinental and asked, “where is international media? I want to tell them that I’d never flee leaving my forces behind.” 

Mitro Bahini also made an airstrike on a radio station in Dhaka and continued such raids on the Kurmitola air base. Chittagong and Chalna ports came to standstill due to airstrikes. 

Pakistani soldiers were held while fleeing on vessels in the Bay of Bengal. They unfurled flags of a neutral country and targeted to reach Singapore.

Most of the UN member countries, 104 of 131 United Nations members, voted in the General Assembly for a resolution that was supported by Pakistan and opposed by India.

Indian delegate to UN, Samar Sen, said that India would not negotiate a ceasefire unless a representative of Bangladesh was present.

He pointed out that the assembly merely called for a ceasefire, withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani armed forces and restoration of order. It had not pronounced itself for or against Bangladesh, he emphasised.

Pakistan’s permanent resident at the UN urged India to withdraw its troops. China termed India’s activities to be imperialist and expansionist. 

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said that India would keep fighting until Pakistani troops were driven out of Bangladesh. She was addressing a student rally in New Delhi.

The Indian prime minister said that her government was considering the United Nations ceasefire resolution but that "nothing can deter us from driving the occupation forces out of the region and helping the Bangladesh people live in peace and prosperity."

Indira Gandhi, apparently aiming at the US, told the students that "certain countries giving us aid are angry with us because we could not possibly act on their advice, which we thought was not in our country's interests."

Later, in a broadcast to the armed forces, the Indian prime minister said, "Fight well, my countrymen. Victory will be ours."

Meanwhile, Mitro Bahini and Mukti Bahini encircled Dhaka and asked Pakistani forces to surrender. Leaving Jamalpur Cantonment, Pakistani forces were headed for Dhaka and eventually, locked in a bloody war with Mitro Bahini, in which 1,500 casualties were reported. 

Al-Badr perpetrators abducted Daily Ittefaq’s Executive Editor Sirajuddin Hossain and PPI Chief Reporter Syed Nazmul Haq from their homes. They never returned. 

We have been publishing the series called Liberation Diary focusing on the country’s 1971 struggle for freedom by collecting. Other than the website, the reports can also be found on the YouTube channel of thereport.live.