45 years ago on December 16, Pakistan Army surrendered to the Indian Army in Dhaka.
Top officers of the Army, Navy and the Air Force as well as veterans of the 1971 war gathered at the Vijay Smarak or victory memorial at Fort William, headquarters of the Army's Eastern Command in Kolkata, on Friday to mark Vijay Diwas.
Forty-five years ago on December 16, the Pakistan Army surrendered to the Indian Army in Dhaka and the nation of Bangladesh was born. Several "mukti joddhas" or freedom fighters from Dhaka were also in Kolkata on Friday to celebrate the anniversary.
Wreathes were laid at the memorial by the mukti joddhas and the eastern commanders in chiefs of the three services to pay tributes to those who were killed in the war. For veterans looking on, memories came alive.
"I was sitting under tree just outside Khulna in erstwhile East Pakistan listening to the transistor when I heard about the surrender of the Pakistan Army. And my first thought was, we have done it," said former Army chief General Shankar Roy Chowdhury was a major in 1971 and led troops in from Tura.
A former Bangladesh foreign secretary, Shamsher M Chowdhury, said, "Early in the war, I was injured and captured by the Pakistan Army. I was in jail on 16th December, sure that I would be executed, when the news of the Pakistan surrender to Bangladesh and Indian forces came. I walked out of jail on 17th."
The best-known photograph of that day is of Pakistan's Lt Gen AKK Niazi signing the Instrument of Surrender to Indian Army's Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora in Dhaka. As many as 93,000 Pakistani soldiers laid down their arms.
For Bangladesh Home Minister Asadduzaman Khan, in Kolkata on the eve of the anniversary, the day is fresh in his mind. "It was an unconditional surrender and, as a freedom fighter myself, that sight is carved in my heart," he said.