General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Command during the Indo-Pak War of 1971

Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora was a Three-star General in the Indian Army. He was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Command during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. He led the ground forces campaign on the Eastern front of the war, which led to an overwhelming defeat of the Pakistan Army and the creation of Bangladesh. At the outbreak of the war on 3 December 1971, as Eastern Army Commander, Gen. Aurora oversaw the Indian ground forces into battle in East Pakistan. In a meticulously planned operation, forces under Aurora’s command formed numerous small combat teams and launched a four-front attack with the strategy of confronting and defeating the Pakistani forces on selected fronts, while bypassing Pakistani forces on others. In under two weeks, his forces advanced from the Indian border to capture Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan. The Unified Commander of Pakistan Armed Forces’ Eastern Military High Command, Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi was forced to sign an unconditional Instrument of Surrender. The 90,000 Pakistani troops under Niazi’s command surrendered to Gen Aurora as prisoners of war.