India commemorates 38th anniversary of its 1971 war victory

New Delhi, Dec 16 (ANI): India celebrated the 38th anniversary of its victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war, which resulted in the liberation of East Pakistan now called Bangladesh.

Defence Minister A.K Antony, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor, Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, and Chief Air Marshal PV Naik laid wreaths at the war memorial.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony, Antony said that hopefully the dream of an army memorial would soon be fulfilled.

"I hope this time we will be able to find an ultimate solution and we will be able to finally fulfill the long cherished wishes of our country and our armed forces," said Antony.

Further reacting to the several scams being reported about the armed forces, Antony said that no allegation goes unnoticed and an enquiry is conducted in all allegations.

"Whenever there is some kind of allegation, we are not ignoring it, we are always making proper enquiry and no allegation is left out without inquiry. Whenever we find that somebody is guilty we are taking exemplary action that is our tradition. That tradition we will scrupulously follow," Antony added.

December 16 is celebrated as 'Vijay Divas' (Victory Day) as on this day in 1971 Indian armed forces defeated Pakistan that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.

The 13-day war ended on December 16 when General A.A.K. Niazi of Pakistan signed the instrument of surrender before India's Lt. Gen. Jasjit Singh Aurora at Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh.

Over 93,000 Pakistani armed forces personnel were taken as prisoners of war. It was the biggest surrender of armed forces by any country in modern times.

An estimated three million Bangladeshis were killed during the war. (ANI)