Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BangladeshLiberationWar
Most recents (11)
In July 1971, 51 yrs ago, US then-NSA Kissinger secretly visited Communist China, then without diplomatic relations. Nine months later Indian PM Indira Gandhi signed a treaty of Friendship with brand-new Bangladesh PM Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. What connects these two events? .../2 
2: The answer is the #BangladeshLiberationWar 1971. Arguably the war - & the horrific holocaust in East Pakistan, starting with the notorious Operation Searchlight - would not have happened but for the US-China outreach.
More in forthcoming tweets, & in my book #DecemberInDacca
More in forthcoming tweets, & in my book #DecemberInDacca
3: Pakistan was, in July 1971, facilitating US-Communist China rapprochement. Nixon & Kissinger needed CMA Yahya Khan (pic 1), & did nothing to stop the Pak Army's crackdown (pic 2), which sent a record refugee wave into India (pic 3) ... /4
More forthcoming #DecemberInDacca
More forthcoming #DecemberInDacca
For any Bengali, this is a very familiar image (PC Zee5) - Bantul the Great, one of the immortal creations of legendary comic artist Narayan Debnath. Bantul, who remains as popular even today, has an interesting connect to #BangladeshLiberationWar (1/3)
The origin roots back to 1965 during the Indo-Pak war when the Narayan Debnath, inspired by the editor of Deb Sahitya Kuteer - Kshirod Babu, started portraying the character as a Superman-like patriotic individual found assisting Indian soldiers (2/3)
This took a whole new dimension during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation as Bantul became a symbol of courage & resistance for the beleaguered Bengalis of East Pakistan. From a comic strip, Bantul became a socio-cultural phenomenon. Truly Great! (3/3)
"Dhaka is now a free capital of a free country"Said The then PM of 🇮🇳Indira Gandhi on 16 Dec,1971 after surrender of 🇵🇰forces in 🇧🇩,but the greatest Military surrender was achieved through sharp mind games. Read this thread to know the fascinating details #VijayDiwas
The Military operation in the then East Pakistan was spear headed by Field Marshall ( CoAS ) Sam Maneckshaw - A Parsi , Gen. J.F.R Jacob ( CoS Eastern Command ) - A Jew & Gen. JJ Singh Arora ( GoC - Eastern command ) - A sikh #1971IndoPakWar #1971WarHeroes #VijayDiwas
But it was J .F.R Jacob the Jewish General from Calcutta who made Pakistan Surrender in Bangladesh .Jack Farj Rafael Jacob grew up in a conservative Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta.
scroll.in/article/676912…
scroll.in/article/676912…
'Genocide' Screamed the report by Journalist Anthony Mascarenhas on the situation in the then 'East Pakistan' published by UK's Sunday Times on 13 June,1971 & the world woke up to the atrocities committed by Pakistani forces . #Bangladesh50 #1971War #BangladeshLiberationWar
The Report helped to turn the world opinion against Pakistan & encouraged India to play a decisive role .#BangladeshLiberationWar #Bangladesh50 #1971War #1971IndoPakWar
google.co.in/amp/s/www.bbc.…
google.co.in/amp/s/www.bbc.…
Neville Anthony Mascarenhas was born in Belgaum, Karnataka on July 10, 1928. A Roman Catholic, he was educated at St Patrick’s College, Karachi, before joining Reuters in Bombay in 1948. He & his family stayed back in Pakistan after partition #Bangladesh50 #1971IndoPakWar
OTD in 1971 the end of the #BangladeshLiberationWar was in sight, but still uncertain. Always a difficult period in wartime; nobody wants to be the last man to die in the war. These couple of days would have imposed special demands on courage, and on junior command skills ...
2: The previous day, as recorded by @BrainsTrustIn & others, IAF aircraft had carried out a spectacularly successful pin-point strike on the very heart of the West Pakistani puppet government in Bangladesh:
... /3
... /3
3: Remaining Pakistan Army units moved from Dacca Cantonment into Dacca University buildings. On 15th morning the IAF went after them, flying low between tall buildings and firing rockets accurately into where the Pakistan Army was sheltering ... /4
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971 a spirited young Gnat pilot took off, against SOPs as his runway was being bombed, fiercely determined to get to grips with the enemy before the war ended. Fg Off Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon would receive the IAF's first & still only PVC ... /2
2: Fg Off Sekhon's story has been told by many, including (respectfully) by a Pakistani officer. One of the most painstaking is this rendition by VR pro Anurag Rana. Nearly a decade after he first rendered it, it remains imho one of the best:
... /3
... /3
3: The various retellings differ in some details - particularly in respect of how many of the enemy he shot down, or damaged, or as Douglas Bader once claimed in his logbook, "frightened". But his sheer determination earned a rare tribute - the enemy's respect ... /4
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971, in a painful sequel to the successes of the previous days, 47 Sqn, AF Stn Jamnagar, the IAF, & India lost Wg Cdr HS Gill, one of the most brilliant pilots to ever strap into a KM-1 seat. Lost leading a second attack on the Badin ADCC ... /2
2: In earlier years, he did breathtaking solo aero displays in a MiG-21 in a distinctive red scheme - at *half* the recommended speeds for aeros at low level. The aircraft was actually travelling on a ballistic trajectory; he was able to retain control & recover energy ... /3
3: Sadly, Wg Cdr Gill's death has not been appropriately closed. Altho' a reliable PAF officer has confirmed recovering a Wg Cdr's body in the area, his name figures in write-ups on Indian PsoW allegedly still held in Pakistan, and still worse ... /4
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971, for the first time ever, a US-built F-104 Starfighter was engaged in air combat by a Soviet-designed MiG-21 – and shot down. This was a hugely significant breakthrough, in the world-wide narrative of air combat ... /2
2: Around 2 pm two PAF F-104s led by the respected Wg Cdr Mervyn Middlecoat SJ (pic 1) attacked AF Stn Jamnagar. Tho' low-flying, they were spotted by Stn Cdr Gp Capt Pete Wilson VrC (pic 2)'s OPs, "just far enough for a MiG-21 pilot to get from charpoy to fighting speed" ... /3
3: Two MiG-21s of 47 Sqn IAF scrambled, flown by Flt Lts MM Sehgal (L) & BB Soni (R). Following a short tail-chase, Flt Lt Soni shot down the lead F-104 over the Gulf of Kutch. He reported a parachute, but Wg Cdr Middlecoat was never found ... /4
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971 2 Para of the Indian Army, CO Lt Col KS Pannu, executed a para-borne assault on Tangail, 80 km NW of Dacca, capturing the Poongli Bridge and cutting off Pakistani troops trying to retreat into Dacca ... /2
2: Some paratroopers had emplaned at Dum Dum, in full view of international correspondents, who excitedly reported, sometimes with wild exaggeration. UPI, for one, said that 5,000 Indian paratroopers had descended on Dacca (actually there were less than a thousand) ... /3
3: 11 Dec was also the day following the attempted breakout by the Pakistani garrison at Jamalpur. Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, then a MLI company commander, tells the story of their surrender over at @BrainsTrustIn:
... /4
... /4
Today, on January 15, India celebrates its 73rd #ArmyDay! A country well-known for its righteous military that not only protects its own countrymen but also supports various peace & security missions all over the globe, celebrates with pride its greatest asset! 1/7
The origin of India’s National #ArmyDay is a beautiful story: On January 15, 1949, General KM Cariappa became the first Indian commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army which had never before been led by an Indian. 2/7
General Cariappa took over the reign from General Butcher who was the last British Commander of the Indian Army. This transfer of Leadership to a native Indian came after exactly 1.5 years of independence from British colonial rule over India! #ArmyDay 3/7
Lt. Col. Hari Singh of the India's posing outside a captured Pakistani police station in Lahore.
#IndoPakWar1965
#IndoPakWar1965
Indian army in the #IndoPakWar1947.
Major General Syed Ahmed (R) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State forces to Major General J.N.Chaudhuri.
c1948
c1948
