From here, they were supposed to advance to the town of Daudkani and then Feni, however IV Corps redirected the division to attack and seize Brahmanbaria.

This was also due in part to the CO of the 27th, Brigadier Saadullah Khan, ordering a general retreat to the fortified positions at Ashuganj.

Mukti Bahini fighters set up these modified torches in paddy fields at Raipura (the DZ) in the hours before the helicopters landed.

According to Major Chandrakant Singh, an officer in 4 Guards at the time, the 14 Mi-4s were escorted by 2 Folland Gnat fighters and landed at their DZ without any issue.

[3] At the time, there was a fear that the two brigades of the Pakistani 14th Inf Div at Bhairab Bazar would spot the landings and overwhelm 4 Guards before they'd had a chance to regroup.

[1] By 4 am, the helicopters had conducted about 50-60 sorties and had moved all ~700 men of 4 Guards, along with an artillery battery from 82 Light Regiment, to Raipura.

[1][3][2] After the war, it was revealed by Pakistani POWs that – upon hearing the sound of helicopters – it was assumed that an entire Indian brigade had been landed to their rear and as such, they were not allowed to move out of Bhairab Bazar.

By the end of the day, the battalion had secured a river crossing point on the western bank of the Meghna and had captured the railway bridge at Narsingdi.

It materialised that the Pakistanis had left behind only 1 platoon of paramilitary to defend Narsingdi, with the Army moving across the Lakhya River to bolster the defence of Dhaka.

Simultaneously, on the 11th, 19 Raj Rif had been crossing the Meghna on boats and linked up with 4 Guards by midday, being transferred into 311 Mountain Brigade.

[1][2] Operation Cactus Lilly, combined with the success of the Tangail Airdrop and its consequences, meant that the Indian Army had reached the gates of Dhaka by 12 December.

Niazi realised that Dhaka was surrounded, he and the then Governor of East Pakistan, began the diplomatic process of organising a ceasefire and then a surrender.

Due to this, the Indian Army's forward units received the order to advance on Dhaka slowly, to give the Pakistanis time to surrender.

[1][5] Hindustan Ki Kasam a Hindi war movie directed by Chetan Anand and released in 1973 was based on the incidents of Operation Cactus Lilly.