Day: December 16, 2015

Nicholas Carroll: On December 16, 1971, just a few hours after the surrender of the Pakistan army, then Prime Minister of In-dia, Indira Gandhi gave her first exclusive interview to journalist Nicholas Carroll, published in The Age on December 20, 1971. Here we publish the whole interview. In the first exclusive interview she has given since the Indo-Pakistan war began, Mrs. Gandhi told me yesterday that she has no doubt that India and Pakistan will establish a friendly relationship. She is convinced that there can be stability in the Indian sub-continent “if outsiders didn't interfere.” There were my questions and her replies: Carroll: You have carried out your declared objectives regarding Bangladesh. You have made it clear that India has no territorial ambitions. How long will it be bef...

    The nation celebrates the 45th Victory Day today, commemorating its glorious victory in a nine month war against Pakistan occupation forces in 1971. This year, Victory Day is going to be celebrated within one month into the executions of condemned war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed who were hanged for their war crimes in the early hours of November 22. On this day in 1971, the chief of the Pakistani occupation forces, Gen AAK Niazi, along with his 93,000 Pakistani troops, surrendered at Ramna Racecourse, now Suhrawardy Udyan, in Dhaka following their miserable defeat to the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Mitra Bahini. In one of the heinous acts of genocide in human history, the Pakistan army and their local collaborators had launched...