The 1971 war: Punjab's border, Sikh officers and the Dhaka surrender

Who: The Indian and Pakistani armies and air forces, and in the east the Mukti Bahini, the Bengali guerrilla force. Sikh and Punjabi officers stood at several points. Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, born into a Sikh family in Jhelum district, commanded Eastern Command. Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri led the company at Longewala. Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon came from Issewal village, Ludhiana. Shabeg Singh, then an Army officer and later a Major General, worked with the Mukti Bahini.

What: On the evening of 3 December Pakistan struck Indian airfields, Pathankot first, with Amritsar and Halwara among the targets, and Indira Gandhi called it a declaration of war. On the Punjab border, Pakistani troops pushed Indian units out of the Hussainiwala enclave on the night of 3 and 4 December. Indian forces took the Sehjra enclave near Khem Karan on 5 and 6 December, removing the threat to the Harike barrage, and the enclave guarding the Dera Baba Nanak bridge over the Ravi on 6 and 7 December. In the Shakargarh sector the ceasefire came before Shakargarh fell. At Longewala in Rajasthan, a single company of 23 Punjab under Chandpuri, with no tank or artillery support, held its post through the night of 4 to 5 December against an armoured column until the Air Force arrived at daybreak on 5 December (The Tribune). Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah (retd), writing in ThePrint, dates the night to 3 and 4 December and the air call to dawn on 4 December. Chandpuri won the Maha Vir Chakra. On 14 December Sekhon took off under fire at Srinagar airfield and engaged Sabre jets; he died there and is the only Air Force recipient of the Param Vir Chakra. On 16 December Lt Gen A. A. K. Niazi signed the surrender at Dhaka with Aurora present, and about 93,000 Pakistani personnel went into captivity.

Where: East Pakistan, ending at Dhaka; the Punjab border at Hussainiwala, Sehjra, Dera Baba Nanak and Shakargarh; Longewala in Rajasthan; Srinagar airfield.

Why it mattered: Bangladesh was born. Sikh and Punjabi soldiers stood at the centre of the victory, and Punjab's own border villages were fought over. After retiring, Aurora joined the Akali Dal, sat in the Rajya Sabha for the Shiromani Akali Dal from 1986 to 1992, and worked for the Sikh victims of November 1984. Shabeg Singh was dismissed from the Army in 1976, and his body was recovered from the Akal Takht basement on 7 June 1984, after Operation Blue Star.