Aurora graduated from the
Indian Military Academy in 1939 and was commissioned into the 1st Battalion,
2nd Punjab Regiment on 1 February. After
Independence and the ensuing
Partition of India, he opted to join the
Indian Army. As a lieutenant colonel commanding 1 (Para) Battalion in the
Punjab Regiment, he was
mentioned in dispatches during the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. On 3 February 1957, he was promoted acting
Brigadier and given command of an infantry brigade. In May 1961, as BGS
XXXIII Corps, Brigadier Aurora led a team of military officers and men sent by the
Government of India on a
reconnaissance mission to
Bhutan. This later led to the establishment of the
Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan. As a brigadier, he fought in the
Sino-Indian War in 1962 and again in
1967. He was appointed a division commander on 21 February 1963, He was then appointed Director of Military Training (DMT) on 23 November 1964. He also participated in the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. On 6 June 1966, Aurora was appointed Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS) with the acting rank of
Lieutenant General, He was then given command of a
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of a corps on 27 April 1967. On 8 June 1969, he was appointed the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C)
Eastern Command.
East Pakistan , Commanding Officer of Pakistan Army forces in East Pakistan signing the instrument of surrender on 16 December 1971 in the presence of Lt. Gen. Aurora In March 1971, the
Pakistan Army launched
Operation Searchlight to curb the
Bengali nationalist movement in
East Pakistan. The operation resulted in commencement of the
Bangladesh Liberation War which resulted in the
Bangladesh genocide, including the systematic
murder of Bengali intellectuals by the Pakistan Army. The ensuing violence led to almost 10 million Bengali refugees fleeing from East Pakistan into India. Under the command of General
M. A. G. Osmani a Bangladeshi military force, the
Mukti Bahini, was formed. Consisting of Bengali defectors from the Pakistan Army and guerrilla fighters, it engaged in hostilities with the Pakistani Army. For the next nine months, with tensions escalating between India and Pakistan and anticipating possible hostilities, Aurora oversaw the logistical preparations of the Indian Army on the Eastern front, including the improvement of roads, communications and bridges, as well as the movement of 30,000 tons of supplies close to the border with East Pakistan. At the outbreak of the
war on 3 December 1971, the Eastern Army Commander, Gen. Aurora oversaw the Indian ground forces into battle in East Pakistan. Forces under Aurora's command, in a meticulously planned operation, formed numerous small combat teams and launched a four-front attack with the strategy of confronting and defeating Pakistani forces on selected fronts, while bypassing them on others. In less than two weeks, his forces advanced from the Indian border to capture
Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan. The
Unified Commander of Pakistan Armed Forces's Eastern Military High Command, Lieutenant General
Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi was forced to sign an instrument of unconditional surrender. View:
Instrument of Surrender. The photograph of Niazi and Aurora at the signing of the Instruments of Surrender became an iconic image of the war, with
The Guardian describing the scene as "the glum Pakistani officer bowed over his signature. The turbaned figure beside him, showing not a scrap of elation". Pakistan lost almost of its territory and 70 million of its people to the newly formed nation of Bangladesh. == Later life ==