Battle of Shiromoni

The Battle of Shiromoni officially started on 13th December. The Mukti Bahini under the command of Major Manzur started to fire heavily with machine guns at Pakistani soldiers stationed at Shiromoni. Simultaneously, the Indian forces established communication with Kolkata to launch air strikes at Shiromoni. The Pakistanis also retaliated with heavy fire through their tanks and ammunitions but suffered immense losses. The next day, seeing no signs of aggression from the Pakistanis, Major Mahendra Singh of the Indian Army thought the Pakistanis might have left Shiromoni and retreated south towards Khulna. For this reason, they were contemplating to move towards Khulna to chase the enemy. Even though Major Manzur asked the Indians to maintain caution, the Indian army under the command of Major Mahendra Singh and Major Gani took 28 vehicles and started to move towards Khulna. On their way to Khulna, after passing through Shiromoni and getting near Badamtola, the Indians faced an ambush by the Pakistani military.[2] Among the 28 vehicles, 26 vehicles got destroyed by the Pakistani Army. In the midst of this ambush, Major Gani was killed but Major Mahendra Singh was able to flee back towards Major Manzur's position at Fultola. Around 250 Indian soldiers got killed or injured at Badamtola.

Due to the strong defensive position of the Pakistan Army, the Mukti Bahini and the Indians were unable to make the Pakistanis retreat. Thus, with moments of brief ceasefires, the battle continued for days till 17th December, even though the commander of all Pakistani forces in Bangladesh, Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi surrendered to joint Indian and Bangladeshi forces at Dhaka on 16th December (which officially ended the Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971). Even though the Instrument of Surrender signed by Lt. General Niazi clearly stated that, “The PAKISTAN Eastern Command agree to surrender all PAKISTAN Armed Forces in BANGLA DESH to Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA, General Officer Commanding in Chief of Indian and BANGLA DESH forces in the Eastern Theatre. This surrender includes all PAKISTAN land, air and naval forces as also all para-military forces and civil armed forces. These forces will lay down their arms and surrender at the places where they are currently located to the nearest regular troops under the command of Lieutenant-General JAGJIT SINGH AURORA”,[3][4] Brigadier Hayat Khan of the Pakistan Army stationed at Shiromoni, however, still had not surrendered and intended to carry on the battle.

On 17th December at 3:00 am, the Bangladeshi and Indian forces faced heavy casualties: among the Indians, seven soldiers died and thirty men got injured; among the Bangladeshis, thirty-one soldiers died and more than 120 men were injured. At 3:10 am, Major Mahendra Singh again requested Kolkata for launching air strikes at Shiromoni, however, they were told that air strike was impossible until sunup. Due to continuous casualties, taking a jeep with him, Major Manzur decided to go to Jessore Cantonment and re-evaluate their battle plans. After a military meeting of ten minutes, it was decided that Major Manzur will be in command of the joint Bangladeshi and Indian forces at Shiromoni and Fultola. As soon as he took responsibility of his new command, Major Manzur sent a wireless message to the Sector IX Commander, Major Joynal Abedin, whose forces were still stationed south of Shiromoni at Khulna region. On receiving Major Manzur's message, Major Joynal Abedin with the aid of Sector IX Mukti Bahini and fighters from Satkhira and other regions of Khulna began to attack the Pakistani defense positions at southern Shiromoni and started to slowly move towards the Shiromoni region. By this time, in the north, Major Manzur moved back near Shiromoni and took charge of his new command and set new battle tactics for the mission. Major Manzur decided that they were no longer going to wait for the Indian airstrikes at dawn and face more casualties. Instead they were going to face the enemy head-on. Firstly, he brought the Mukti Bahini fighters stationed at the right of Shiromoni to the second line of defence in the front line and sent the Indian soldiers at the front line to the right of Shiromoni. Two commandos on the left side and three commandos on the back side were put on the front line defense, while the other Indian soldiers were posted at the back side of the defense. Manzur then ordered two Indian tanks to move towards Shiromoni using the main road and ordered an additional six tanks to attack the Pakistani strong positions from the right side. Behind each of these tanks Major Manzur sent twelve Mukti Bahini men eager to get martyred. With them joined Major Manzur himself.[5]

With 25 or more Pakistani tanks in front of them Major Manzur and his suicidal commando force began to advance towards the enemy tanks amidst heavy fire from tanks and hundreds of mortars. They breached the Pakistani lines and began to destroy tanks and cannons. They began to throw grenades inside any Pakistani tanks which had their hatches open. This helped decline the Pakistani soldiers’ morale and many of them began to abandon their tanks and desert their positions.

On the other side, the Indian forces at the back still had no clue whether Major Manzur was still alive or not. Around this time, message from the front line reached the Indian soldiers that Major Manzur was still alive and the Pakistanis were slowly retreating. By six o’clock it was already sunup and as planned the Indian airstrikes finally arrived to lay the final nail in the coffin of the Pakistani frontline defense. With 157 of his men killed, Brigadier Hayat Khan agreed to surrender to Major Manzur.