Die was cast for Bangladesh’s Liberation War in April 1971

The month of April 1971 was when the die for the future of Bangladesh's Liberation War was cast. Both Indian and Bangladesh governments got busy in planning operations for expunging the Pakistani occupation forces at the earliest. Indira Gandhi held numerous meetings with cabinet colleagues, bureaucrats and the army top brass. She appointed an Advisory Group (AG) consisting of senior officials to deal with the Bangladesh crisis—Durga Prasad (DP) Dhar, Chairman of Planning Commission, Parmeshwar Narayan (PN) Haksar, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Triloki Nath (TN) Kaul, Foreign Secretary, Prithvi Nath (PN) Dhar, Secretary in the Prime Minister's office, and RN Kao, Director of RAW. All of them were Kashmiri Brahmins and acquainted to Indira Gandhi and had worked with her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. Some of them were related to her as well as to each other. The AG came to be known as "Kashmir Brigade" in the corridors of power. They worked in perfect synchronisation and laid down the liberation strategy for Bangladesh. A timetable was formulated to achieve the objectives within the time-frame of maximum one year. By the end of April, India was fully involved in the Liberation War.

A conference chaired by Colonel MAG Osmani—attended by all Bangladeshi senior army officers—was held in the tea garden of Teliapara in Slylhet district on April 4, 1971. From the Indian side, the district magistrate of Agartala Mr Saigal and Brigadier BC Pandey of BSF also attended. A policy paper was prepared for raising liberation forces—called the "Telipara Document", it spelt out the strategy for Bangladesh's liberation. This strategy was later approved by the Mujibnagar Government.