The freedom fighters escorted the captives on foot and reached Tikatuli around 5pm. вЂњThe surrendered arms were loaded on two trucks and sent to Dhaka before we started marching forward.

Two battalions of Pakistan armyвЂ™s Baloch and Panjab Regiments, including 52 or 54 officers, surrendered,вЂќ according to Mokhlesur.

Commanding Officer KM Shafiullah contacted the Pakistani commanding officer via wireless and asked them to fall in line on Demra road to surrender. Mokhlesur Rahman himself crossed the river with some other freedom fighters around 1:30pm. вЂњTeams of freedom fighters were crossing the river in hundreds when the white flag was hoisted,вЂќ Mokhlesur added Shortly afterward, Pakistani soldiers stopped firing and hoisted the white flag to surrender at around 12:30pm. They reached the Demra side, took a position, and opened fire. Mokhlesur Rahman | Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka TribuneA team of around 150 freedom fighters crossed the river first. We then decided to cross the river and asked for help from the locals to arrange boats,вЂќ the freedom fighter said. вЂњWe suddenly saw that the Pakistani soldiers on the west bank had stopped firing and withdrawn from their position at around 12pm. They exchanged fire with the Pakistani Army on the Balu and Shitalakhya riverbanks till the morning of December 16. We were just a battle away from the capital,вЂќ he recalled. вЂњThe whole battalion was there and took a position at the east bank to cross the river to the west bank, to Demra. Our company took a position with other freedom fighters at Porabari village of Sonargaon on December 14,вЂќ Mokhlesur said. вЂњFrom Narsingdi, around 300 freedom fighters of two companies started marching towards Dhaka on December 12 morning. Mokhlesur retired from the Army as a Warrant Officer in the вЂ™80s.

Mokhlesur was a section commander of the 2nd East Bengal Regiment at the time and fought under then Major KM Shafiullah, commander of Sector-3 during the Liberation War. Mokhlesur Rahman was one of the freedom fighters who escorted the surrendering soldiers to Dhaka Stadium from Demra. When the freedom fighters arrived on the Dhaka side, the Pakistani forces lined up and surrendered their arms and ammunition on Demra road. Freedom fighters saw the white flags while crossing the rivers on boats. The occupation army laid down their arms and hoisted the white flag hours before Pakistan Army Eastern Commander Lt General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi made the surrender official before the joint commanders of the liberation forces in a ceremony at Dhaka Ramna Racecourse. Freedom fighters exchanged fire with the heavily armed Pakistan forces for three days until the latter surrendered on Victory Day, December 16. Just one more battle stood between the liberators and the Bangladesh capital.

The occupation army laid down their arms and hoisted the white flag hours before the Pakistani commander made the surrender officialДЄfter driving the Pakistani occupation army out of district after district, freedom fighters and allied Indian forces took position on the banks of the Shitalakshya and Balu Rivers, east of Dhaka, on December 14, 1971.

Victory day 2020