Video: 'Surrender of East Pakistan to Indian Army in 1971 War, 16 December, 1971'

(Thursday, December 16, 1971, war between India and Pakistan on the eastern front formally ended at 4:31 p.m.local time; during the 1971 Bangladesh genocide) — The Pakistan Armed Forces surrendered this afternoon to the Joint Forces of Bangladesh (the Mukti Bahini) and the Indian Armed Forces, bringing an end to the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

In Dhaka, which fell to India in the morning, the surrender document was signed by The Pakistan Army commander of East Pakistan operations, Lieutenant General A. A. K. Niazi, who had vowed earlier that his troops would fight the Indian forces to the last man, and accepted by the Indian Army commander of India’s Eastern Forces, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora.

Video: 'Bangladesh's Victory Day: Dec 16, 1971 - Reports in U.S. Media.'

During the nine-month-long 1971 Bangladesh genocide, members of the Pakistan Armed Forces and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami killed between 200,000 and 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women, according to Bangladeshi and Indian sources, in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape.

The triumph of the former East Pakistan in its quest to become independent of Pakistan is now commemorated on December 16 as the Victory day of Bangladesh and Vijay Diwas in India.