The tide of war had turned by mid-December in 1971. The promise of freedom was no longer a dream. It had hardened into tangible certainty.

For nearly nine months, the Pakistani army -- supported by local collaborators -- had unleashed unspeakable brutality. They had killed, raped, pillaged and plundered. Just before they were about to be vanquished, their vicious collaborators also silenced the nation's brightest sons and daughters. They wanted to turn the verdant green of Bangladesh into a wasteland of scorched red.

That freedom, which had inched closer and closer through the nine months, now seemed to be just within reach.

From the first days of December, Mukti Bahini fighters moved with renewed confidence. Their presence was felt even inside occupied Dhaka. From the outskirts, allied Indian and Bangladeshi forces closed in, tightening the circle. The city became a stage where the final act was about to unfold.

The sky opened up too. It had been a particularly wet monsoon. But now it was about to become a particularly fiery winter as allied fighter planes roared overhead, their strikes shaking the earth beneath Dhaka. Leaflets drifted down with dire warning: "Lay down arms before the time runs out."

Pakistanis panicked.

According to the Pakistan government's Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report on December 7, Governor AM Malik sent a secret cable to President General Yahya Khan presenting the grim picture. "No amount of lip sympathy or even material help from world powers except direct physical intervention will help. Is it worth sacrificing so much when the end seems inevitable?"

No civil government existed after December 6, 1971. When the Indian Air Force bombed the city, there were no civic agencies available to clear the roads or attend to the injured and wounded persons, Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan, a Pakistani officer present in the Eastern Wing during the war, wrote this in his book "How Pakistan Got Divided".

"Dacca was a ghost city. Most of the time it was under curfew, out of fear of Mukti Bahini activities. Most of the pro-Pakistan elements were panicking now, be they East or West Pakistani," he wrote.

Siddik Salik, then public relations officer of the Pakistan army, described the situation of December 14. Yahya sent a message to Malik and Lieutenant General AAK Niazi, the military commander of Pakistan's Eastern Command.

It reads, "You have now reached a stage when further resistance is no longer humanly possible nor will it serve any useful purpose. You should now take all necessary measures to stop the fighting and preserve the lives of all armed forces personnel from West Pakistan," Salik later wrote in his book "Witness to Surrender".

Amid the growing speculation of surrender, on December 16 morning Major General Gandharv Singh Nagra, who was close behind commando troops, held back at the Mirpur bridge and wrote a chit to Niazi.

It said: "Dear Abdullah, I am at Mirpur Bridge. Send your representative."

Major General Jamshed, Major General Farman and Rear Admiral Shariff were with Niazi when he received the note at about 9:00am.

Farman said "Is he (Nagra) the negotiating team?" General Niazi did not comment.

The obvious question was whether he was to be received or resisted. He was already on the threshold of Dacca.

But the Pakistani did not have any reserves with which to resist Nagra. Both Farman and Shariff agreed, then, to do what Nagra asks.

Niazi then sent Jamshed to receive Nagra and asked Pakistani troops to respect the cease-fire and allow Nagra a peaceful passage.

"The Indian general entered Dacca with a handful of soldiers and a lot of pride. That was the virtual fall of Dacca. It fell quietly like a heart patient. Neither were its limbs chopped nor its body hacked. It just ceased to exist as an independent city," Salik wrote later.

Lieutenant General JFR Jacob reached the headquarters of Pakistani forces that afternoon to discuss surrender. Niazi, received Jacob.

"Col [MH] Khara read out the terms of surrender. There was dead silence in the room, as tears streamed down Niazi's cheeks. The others in the room became fidgety," Jacob wrote in his book "Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation".

Rao Farman Ali objected to surrendering to the Indian and Bangladeshi forces. Niazi said what Jacob was asking him to sign was unconditional surrender.

Jacob assured that they would be treated as soldiers with due dignity and the Geneva Convention would be honoured. That there would be respect for all ethnic minorities.

Niazi passed the document to the others. They wanted some changes. Jacob reiterated that the terms were already very generous and walked out of the room, leaving the Pakistanis to deliberate.

Then the two parties discussed the modalities of the surrender.

Niazi said he would like it to take place in his office. Jacob told him that the ceremony would take place at the Ramna Race Course, now Suhrawardy Udyan.

He felt it would be appropriate to have a public surrender in full view of the people of Dhaka who had suffered so terribly.

Niazi argued that this was not appropriate.

Jacob said Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, commander of the Indian Eastern Command, also chief of the joint Bangladesh and India forces, would be given a guard of honour by detachments of the Indian and Pakistani armies.

After that Aurora and Niazi would sign the documents. Niazi would then surrender his sword, proposed Jacob.

When Niazi said he did not have a sword, Jacob said that Nazi would surrender his sidearm. Niazi seemed unhappy but kept silent.

Pakistani officers agreed with the Indian terms and Niazi went to Dhaka airport to receive Jagjit Singh Aurora.

It was against this backdrop, on December 16, 1971, in absence of MAG Osmani, the Bangladesh forces commander-in-chief, the government decided that AK Khandaker, deputy chief of staff of Bangladesh forces, would represent the Bangladesh Army at the surrender ceremony.

Officials began looking for Khandaker and finally found him near New Market in Kolkata. They told Khandaker that Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad had asked him to go directly to Dum Dum Airport.

"At that time, I was wearing civilian clothes, that is, a shirt and a sweater, and I did not even have time to change into military clothes," Khandaker remembered in his book titled "1971 Bhetore Baire."

After reaching the airport and climbing two or three steps, Khandaker noticed an Indian army jeep approaching. It stopped at the bottom of the steps and out came Aurora with his wife.

Khandaker moved down the steps to make room for them to board the plane.

"General Aurora put his hand on my back and smiled softly, you are the commander of the Mukti Bahini. You go first."

After reaching Dhaka, Khandaker travelled with Aurora in his jeep. They passed a sea of jubilant people as they went to the race course, the very ground from where nine months ago, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had announced in his captivating baritone, "…The struggle this time is a struggle for emancipation. The struggle this time, is a struggle for independence. Joy Bangla!"

Niazi gave Auroa a military salute and shook hands.

"It was a touching sight. The victor and the vanquished stood in full view of the Bengalees, who made no secret of their extreme sentiments of love and hatred for Aurora and Niazi respectively," Salik wrote.

The stage was set for the watershed event, for the dawn of a new history and the birth of an independent nation. In that moment, the flow of time seemed to halt—as if the world itself held its breath, awaiting the arrival of a new dawn.

"The ceremony was simple and it ended within a few minutes," Khandaker recalls.

There were only two chairs and a table. Niazi sat on one chair and Aurora on the other. Soon as the clock struck 5:01pm, Niazi signed the surrender instrument, followed by Aurora.

Aurora handed a pen to Niazi to sign, but it did not write.

Aurora took the pen, jerked it in the air, then handed it to Niazi.

"This time the pen worked and Niazi signed the instrument. Later, I learned that Aurora had bought the pen from Calcutta just to sign the surrender document that day," Khandaker recalled.

Niazi also handed over his sidearm.

Niazi himself said he signed the document with trembling hands as sorrow rose from his heart to his eyes and they brimmed with tears of despair and frustration.

Before the ceremony, a French reporter came to Niazi and asked, "How are you feeling, Tiger?

"Depressed." Niazi replied.

With this, around 93,000 Pakistani troops, among the largest assembled anywhere in the world, surrendered as the sun was setting, as if a metaphor for the end of the 24-year Pakistani repression on Bangalees.

As Niazi took out his revolver and handed it to Aurora to mark the capitulation of Dacca, Salik observed in his book, "With that, he handed over East Pakistan!"