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India immediately recognized Bangladesh and gave a strong military reply. The Indian strategy was to hold the Pakistani forces in the western sector through strong defensive action, while waging a short, swift and decisive war in the East, forcing the Pakistan army there to surrender before the US, China or the UN could intervene. Brilliantly led by General J.S. Arora, the Indian army, joined by the Mukti Bahini, virtually ran through East Bengal and reached Dacca, its capital, within eleven days, and surrounded the Pakistani garrison there. Since, in the words of Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, President Nixon was ‘not inclined to let the Pakis be defeated,’ the US government tried to intervene, declared India to be the aggressor, and stopped all economic aid to it. However, its two resolutions in the UN Security Council proposing a ceasefire and mutual troop withdrawals were vetoed by the Soviet Union, with Britain and France abstaining. The Chinese threat also did not materialize as it confined its intervention to bitter verbal denunciations. More or less in desperation and reminiscent of the gunboat diplomacy of the nineteenth century, on Nixon’s orders, segments of the US Seventh Fleet, led by the nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, set out for the Bay of Bengal on 9 December with the objective of forcing India to delay the fall of Dacca. However, government calmly ignored the American threat and, instead, asked General Manekshaw, India’s Army Chief, to hurry the completion of India’s military plan. The Indian armed forces, having surrounded Dacca on 13 December, forced the defeated and demoralized 93,000 strong Pakistan army in Bangladesh, to surrender, on 16 December. Following the surrender in Dacca, on 17 December, the Indian government announced a unilateral ceasefire on the western front. Pakistan readily accepted the ceasefire and released Mujibur Rahman, who came to power in Bangladesh on 12 January 1972. India had several gains to show from the Bangladesh war. The balance of power in South Asia had been altered with India emerging as the pre-eminent power. The grave refugee problem had been solved with the ten million refugees promptly and smoothly sent back to their homes in Bangladesh. The humiliating memory of the defeat in 1962 was wiped out and India's lost pride and self-respect restored. The war had ended, the ceasefire had come—but peace had not. India still held over 90,000 prisoners of war and was in occupation of nearly 9,000 square kilometres of Pakistani territory. Pakistan was yet to recognize Bangladesh. Summit conference between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the newly-elected prime minister of Pakistan, was held in Shimla in June 1972 a great deal of hard bargaining took place and the two signed a agreement which came to be known as the Shimla Declaration. India agreed to return the Pakistan territory it had occupied, except some strategy points in Kashmir, mainly in the Kargil sector, which were necessary to safeguard the strategic road link between Srinagar and Leh in Ladakh. In return, Pakistan agreed to respect the existing Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and undertook not to alter it unilaterally by force or threat of force. The two countries also agreed to settle all their disputes through bilateral negotiations without any outside mediation by the UN or any other power. India also agreed to return the prisoners of war to Pakistan but this was to be contingent upon a Bangladesh-Pakistan agreement. This occurred the next year when Pakistan recognized Bangladesh in August 1973. Shimla agreement saw India loosing all the advantages it had gained in the war. The hope with which India decided to return the large Pakistani territory it had occupied was unfounded. Pakistan never accepted the Shimla agreement and tried to forcibly alter the LoC when in 1999 May its army regulars dressed as Jehadis attacked various forward Indian posts but were repulsed. |
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