Sikh General Who Led 1971 War Cremated

May 8, 2005

Source: SikhNet News

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/news.nsf/SikhNetHPNewsHTML/0E0E66A631C29D5987256FF8006A7081?OpenDocument

On May 8, 2005 Agence France-Presse reported, "India cremated with full military honours an army general hailed as the architect of the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation. Cabinet ministers, senior military officers and a former Indian prime minister, I.K. Gujral, attended the funeral in New Delhi of retired lieutenant general Jagjit Singh Aurora who died of a heart attack Tuesday at the age of 89. Diplomats from Bangladesh also laid a wreath on the funeral pyre of Aurora on Thursday. Aurora is survived by a son and daughter. The Sikh is best remembered as the chief of India's eastern command who led Indian troops and Bangladeshi guerrillas to victory over Pakistan in December 1971 after a bloody conflict. Aurora secured the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers in the lightning 17-day war that resulted in the emergence of Bangladesh as a separate nation."