Dhaka: Pakistani troops conceded their defeat on December 16, 1971 but the last Pakistani administration dissolved in a visibly funny manner with air raids on the Governor House in downtown Dhaka two days ahead of the victory.

"All morning, (Governor) Dr. Malik and his regional cabinet had been unable to decide to resign or hang on. The Indian air raids finally resolved the issue," read a Reuters report on December 14, 1971 from Dhaka as it described the fall of the last Pakistani administration to pave way for independent Bangladesh.

It added: "Dr AM Malik, Governor of East Pakistan, wrote the draft of the resignation letter for his cabinet to President Yahya Khan with a 'shaking ballpoint pen' on a scrap of office paper as Indian MIG-21's destroyed his official residence, Governor House."

Even the defeated Pakistani military personnel familiar with the situation at that time too had almost identical descriptions in visibly ridiculing tone while famous British journalist Gavin David Young who was inside the governor House at that time had a more vivid description of the last moments of East Pakistan government.

In his book Worlds Apart, Young wrote he went to see John Kelly of the United Nations at the governor house just after the initial Indian air strike when Kelly told him that Malik was meeting with his cabinet and his military adviser Major General Rao Farman Ali was also present inside.

Young and Kelly went to see the governor when a frightened Malik asked Kelly "should we give up now do you think?" but the UN representative evaded a direct answer while the second air raid began prompting Malik to write out his resignation, addressed to Yahya Khan.

"While the raid was still in progress Malik, a devout Muslim, took off his shoes and socks, carefully washed his feet, spread a white handkerchief over his head, and knelt down in the bunker and said his prayers. That was the end of the last government of East Pakistan," the book read.

Pakistani military spokesman Major Siddiq Salik in his much known Witness to Surrender wrote, on December 13 the governor and his principal aides waited for orders from Rawalpindi, "but the President seemed too busy to take a decision".

On the next day Malik called a high level meeting when three Indian MIGs attacked Governor House at 11.15 a.m. and ripped the massive roof of the main hall and "The governor rushed to the air-raid shelter and scribbled out his resignation".

"Almost all the inmates of this seat of power survived the raid, except for some fishes in a decorative glass case. They restlessly tossed on the hot rubble and breathed their last," Salik wrote.

"14 December was the last day of the East Pakistan Government. The debris of the Government and Governor House were scattered," The Witness to Surrender read.

The then chief of general staff of Indian army's Eastern Command Lieutenant General JRF Jacob wrote on receipt of military intelligence information that Malik called the meeting for 1200 hours he asked the air force to attack the governor house thinking "a disruption of the meeting would spur the governor to accept the surrender calls".

"The attack was carried out accurately by our aircraft," his 'Surrender at Dacca' read.

Ends/AMA/12/12/12