Kendrapara: The whole country Friday celebrated the 51st Vijay Diwas marking the victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Sulabh Charan Behera, then a soldier of the India Army, had taken part in the war. A resident of Karilopatana under Marshaghai block of Kendrapara, he recounted the horrific war scenes and Indian soldiers’ heroics and humanitarian acts in handing out much sought-after Independence to Bangladesh from Pakistan. He also narrated how the Indian soldiers celebrated Vijay Utsav at Dhaka after East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was carved out of Pakistan after the war.
After the partition of India, the people of East Pakistan were struggling to separate from West Pakistan to become an independent nation. The leader of East Pakistan Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had formed an army Mukti Bahini to take on West Pakistan. He was being supported by India. India used to impart military training to jawans of the Mukti Bahini. At that time, Sulabh said, he was engaged in the signal unit of the Indian army. Soldiers of West Pakistan had destroyed bridges and roads leading to East Pakistan.
At that time, Indian soldiers were busy reconstructing the damaged bridges and roads, apart from ensuring the supply of food, arms, and ammunition to Mukti Bahini. Sulabh vividly recalled some scenes when Indian soldiers were giving food packets to hungry civilians during the war. The war continued for 17 days and soldiers were dying in large numbers. The casualties could not be assessed rightly.
Nearly 92,000 Pakistani soldiers with Lt General AAK Niyazi, martial law administrator of East Pakistan, had surrendered before the joint army of Indian soldiers and Mukti Bahini at Dhaka. Lt General of Indo-Bangla joint army Jagjit Singh Arora was present. After the surrender, Indian soldiers were immersed in victory celebrations at Dhaka. Sulabh joined the Indian Army in 1956 and took part in the Indo-China war in 1962 and the Indo-Pak war in 1965. He retired in 1983. A brave Indian soldier, he has still treasured many medals given to him during service, for which his family still takes pride in him.
