to starve out the garrison by a prolonged siege. Sukhwant Singh knew that there was no Pakistani artillery in this sector, only two troops of mortars, but states that "Kler was further handicapped inasmuch as one of his battalions had just been organised from an 1 (sic) battalion, raised initially for counterinsurgency with no support elements. In tackling a weak platoon post, another battalion brought out some major weaknesses of leadership under fire. The battalion reached its objective with relatively few casualties. As expected, the enemy turned artillery fire on the objective. A mortar bomb landed on a trench occupied by four men close to the commanding officer. He saw limbs fly and lost his nerve." Artillery and air strike At about 09:30 on 4 December, after withdrawing his troops from close siege, Kler "hammered the post with seven sorties of MiG-21s firing rockets and cannon, and this was repeated twice later in the day". Maj. Gen. Gurbux Singh (commander of the north region) himself entered affairs by sending Capt. Malik a note via a Mukti Bahini courier: "whatever you decide to do, we have every intention of eliminating Kamalpur post. It is to save you and our side casualties this message is being sent to you". He sent another note after a further air strike and this was met, as had been the other messages, by increased firing by Malik's men. But it could not go on, Malik received the order by radio to surrender, which he did at 1900 that day. Outcome Sukhwant Singh noted, Malik "had put up a courageous stand ... and had surrendered after holding a brigade of besiegers for 21 days ... Manekshaw sent a personal congratulatory message to Malik, commending his defiant stand". Maj. Gen. Gurbux Singh decided to meet Malik personally but, while being driven towards Kamalpur by Kler, their jeep went over a mine and he was badly wounded. When Capt. Malik's force was taken in, it was found that his company was nearly out of ammunition, barring a few hand grenades and a few bullets each. Awards Captain Ahsan Malik, 31 Baloch of Pakistan Army, was decorated with a Sitara-e-Jurrat. See also Last stand Notes References Battles of the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 in India Aerial operations and battles involving India December 1971 events in Asia Last stands