Vijay Diwas is celebrated on December 16 every year to honour the victory of Indian armed forces over Pakistan in the 1971 war.
The war started when Pakistan launched air strikes on 11 Indian airbases on December 3, 1971. The war which lasted 13 days, officially came to an end on December 16. It was the biggest-ever military surrender after World War II. The chief of the Pakistani forces, General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi surrendered to the joint forces of the Indian Army and Bangladesh's Mukti Bahini, along with 93,000 Pakistani troops. Eight months after the war, in August 1972, India and Pakistan settled the Shimla agreement.
