Army veterans during a programme held to pay tributes to Param Vir Chakra recipient Second Lt Arun Kheterpal at the Chandimandir Military Station on Saturday. Tribune photo

Chandigarh, December 16

To commemorate India’s historic win over Pakistan in the 1971 war, Vijay Diwas was celebrated at the Headquarters, Western Command, Chandimandir, today with full military grandeur and dignity. A solemn wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Veer Smriti war memorial in Chandimandir where the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen Surinder Singh, paid floral tributes to the martyrs.A large number of officers and other ranks attended the ceremony. Several senior retired officers who had participated in the 1971 war, including Brig Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, Lt Gen GS Sihota, Air Marshal MM Singh and Col HS Dhaliwal were also present. It was on December 16, 2017, that Pakistani forces laid down their arms before the Indian forces and Lt Gen AAK Niazi, the Pakistani commander in the east, surrendered to Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, the then GOC-in-C, Eastern Command. This led to the creation of Bangladesh as an independent nation.At another ceremony in Chandimandir, course mates of Param Vir Chakra recipient, Second Lieutenant Arun Kheterpal, paid tributes to him at his statute installed near the entrance to the military station.Belonging to the Poona Horse, he laid down his life in the battle of Basantar on the western front during the war. A fierce tank fight was fought between the Poona Horse and 13 Lancers of Pakistan on the banks of the Basantar river. Khetarpal was severally wounded during the action and was asked to abandon his tank. He refused to do so and gallantly fought destroying several enemy tanks. At this stage, his tank received a direct hit which resulted in his death.Arun’s brother Mukesh Khetrapal and 21 of his course mates from the three services, accompanied by ladies, six veterans from the Poona Horse, along with serving representatives of the unit, his instructor at the Indian Military Academy, Brigadier Dhaliwal, as well as the headmaster of the Lawrance School, Sanawar, where he had studied, were present on the occasion. — TNS