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Writer Mod Date & Time
PARTITION: Tape 22 255MODEM 255MODEM Dec 28 12:42
TAPE 22
Side A
General (retd) JACK JACOB
interviewed in Delhi, 11 Dec 1996
chief of staff Eastern Command in 1971 war, and drafted Pak
surrender document; born into a Sephardic Jewish family in
Calcutta; served in mid-East during WW2; latterly on nat exec of
BJP
15 - military campaign launched on 3rd after Pak bombing
of Indian airfields; by 13th, troops on outskirts
of Dhaka
36 > reads out part of surrnder doc
51 - 'I landed at Dhaka at 12 o'clock in the a'noon of
16th with a draft surrender doc in my pocket ...
there was firing going on in the town ... '; Pak
objections to draft document
80 - left doc with Pak generals, then 'went back and
asked them if they wd accept it; they didn't answer,
Nyazi had tears in his eyes, I cd u’stand what he
felt, it must have been terr for any soldier to
surrender, ... I asked him have you accd this doc,
he didn't answer, he then pushed the doc towards me,
I took that as acceptance'
92 - public surrender ceremony; onlookers ' they were most
euphoric; after the doc was signed, Nyazi had tears
in his eyes; the crowd there wanted to lynch him ...
we had hardly any troops there, we were just entering
Dhaka, and we had gt problems forming a cordon around
Nyazi and escorting him to a jeep, and he was driven
off'
117 - 'when i entered Dhaka, the mukti bahini were running
around, there was gt euphoria, there was firing in
the air ... they wanted to attack Nyazi's HQs ...
but they were exuberant, in fact over exuberant
they were singing ... Joi bangla, things like that'
133 - 'as time went on [welcome] wore thin ... we withdrew as
quicly as poss', moving out on 23 March
148 - 'we got an intercept on morning of 14th ... saying
going to be a v high level mtg ... in Dhaka at govt
hosue; I then tried to find out where govt house was,
we only had a guide map of Dhaka, the same guide
map, fort, my counterpart in Shillong had, the air
force chap, we had to decide which govt house, there
were two, the old one and the new one, we decided it
wd be the old one ... and an attack was planned and
went in in two hours, govt house was v accurately hit,
... the gov then resigned ... that was the end of the
last govt in e Pak' [was an aerial rocket attack]
168 - when war started, Indian army maps of e Pak were 50
yrs old; m bahini and E Bengal regiments provided
accurate maps, but no detailed map of Dhaka; ' so
we had to rely on ... a tourist guide map' |
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