Its been 50 years since Pakistan's armed forces laid down their arms at a ceremony in Dhaka before the joint command of the Indian armed forces and Bangladesh's Mukti Bahini.
As the two armed forces were celebrating their victory, Mrs Gandhi had other things to worry about. 1/
1. The enormous cost of the war
2. The cost of dealing with over 10M refugees
3. The un-budgeted responsibility of having to look after the 93,000 Pakistani soldiers taken as POWs.
India wanted to keep the POW's in conditions that went above and beyond Geneva norms. 2/
Despite all this, the biggest concern for Mrs Gandhi - who would lead Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was tried by a Pakistani military court and sentenced to death.
In his prison cell, a 6.5 ft long grave was dug with a rope with a loop at the end hanging over it. 3/
It would be a nightmare for India if Pakistan carried out the death sentence. Bangladesh would continue to be in turmoil without a leader.
So for India it was important that Bangladesh had its leader back and Mrs Gandhi was willing to do anything. 4/
Meanwhile, Pakistan's surrender was an intolerable insult for General Yahya Khan, who took full responsibility for the national disaster and stepped down from office.
Yahya appointed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as the chief martial law administrator of Pakistan. 5/
At the time of surrender, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was in Washington attending UN Security Council meetings.
He was instructed to fly back to Pakistan.
Bhutto’s Washington-Rawalpindi flight was scheduled for a refuelling stopover at Heathrow airport in London. 6/
Indira Gandhi learned of this flight and called an emergency meeting.
She wanted to secure a contact who would meet Bhutto at Heathrow and find out about Bhutto's views on Mujibur Rahman's sentencing.
The meeting was attended by DP Dhar, RN Kao among others. 7/
In DP Dhar's residence in Delhi, Muzaffar Hussain, who was a big shot civil servant from East Pakistan, was lodged as a VIP guest.
In reality he was a POW, but wasn't kept in prison.
His wife Laila Hussain, was unable to fly to Dhaka from London due to the war. 8/
Muzaffar & Laila (in London) were communicating with each other through diplomatic channels.
Sashanka S Banerjee, an Indian diplomat in London, had befriended Laila Hussain.
Indira Gandhi knew that Laila and Bhutto had been intimate friends for a long time. 9/
Indira Gandhi felt that Laila Hussain, an old flame of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, would play the key role in determining the immediate fate of the Indian sub-continent.
The plan was set - at the Heathrow airport lounge, 2 old lovebirds would meet. 10/
Finally at the VIP lounge at the Heathrow airport, 2 lovebirds met and discussed romantic things like how Laila's husband is a POW in India.
How Bangladesh will be leaderless and be difficult to manage. 11/
With a twinkle in his eye, Bhutto pulled Laila aside and whispered a very sensitive, top secret message for the Indian prime minister.
'I will shortly thereafter release Mujibur Rahman, allowing him to return home. What I want in return, I will let Mrs. Indira Gandhi know.' 12/
On being released from Mianwali Prison in Rawalpindi, Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in London by a PIA special flight on 8 January 1972.
Indira Gandhi got Sashanka S Banerjee to accompany Rahman, first to Delhi and then to Dhaka. 13/
Mujibur Rahman returned to Dhaka on 10th January 1972. He found a sea of people waiting to welcome him back – the people who he had dreamed an sacrificed to free from Pakistani oppression. 14/
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in return for the release, asked for the return of POW's.
A gesture of generosity must be met with a matching gesture of grace. Nothing less according to Mrs Gandhi. 15/
Exuding a spirit of genuine gratefulness for sparing the life of Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s father of the nation, eight months after he was set free, India ordered the release of all 93,000 Pakistani POWs under the Shimla Agreement of August 2, 1972. 16/
So a combination of diplomacy and rekindling an old romance, ensured Bangladesh had its leading light back and a record 93,000 POW's got back to their country.
The End.
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