After conceding defeat and accession of the instrument of surrender in 1971, the Indian Army took the responsibility to protect the Pakistan's joint servicemen in East-Pakistan. During the early phases of the surrender, Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh Aurora allowed the Pakistani servicemen their right to bear small arms for their protection against the insurgents of Mukti Bahini who were seeking their revenge on Pakistani servicemen. In December 1971, the Provisional Government of Bangladesh had shown their intention to India regarding the war prisoners, creating controversy between the India and Bangladesh, as Bangladeshis wanting to hold the cases on the Pakistani servicemen who would be charge with the crimes against humanity in their special courts, and strongly opposed the Indian Army's plan for transferring of war prisoners. From 1971 till 1972, the Indian Army quickly transferred the war prisoners to their special war camps in different parts of India through train and air transportation, mainly due to prisoners safety and wellbeing. The military commanders of Eastern Command of Pakistani military were held in Fort William in Calcutta, and were transferred by the Air India's commercial plane. Later, the commanders were held in Jabalpur Cantonment. In 1973, majority of the war prisoners were then shifted to Red Fort and Gwalior Fort in New Delhi. The Indian government treated all the war prisoners in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention, ruled in 1925. These 93,000 war prisoners were slowly released by India who were repatriated at the Zero Point, Wagah, and the Line of Control. India took approximately 93,000 prisoners of war that included Pakistani soldiers as well as some of their East Pakistani collaborators. 79,676 of these prisoners were uniformed personnel, of which 55,692 were Army, 16,354 Paramilitary, 5,296 Police, 1000 Navy and 800 PAF. The remaining 13,324 prisoners were civlians - either family members of the military personnel or bihari razarkars. Before the war prisoners were repatriated, Pakistan and India had to sign the Simla Agreement in 1972 but it was not until 1974 when the Delhi Agreement was signed that marked the repatriation. The Simla Agreement treaty ensured that Pakistan recognized the independence of Bangladesh in exchange for the return of the Pakistani POWs.
The foreign reaction to India's taking of these 90,000 POWs varied from nation to nation. The United Nations supported India's move as they condemned the human rights violations the Pakistani Armed Forces inflicted upon Bangladeshis. As a result, the U.N. was quick to accept Bangladesh's independence. Bhutan became the second country after India to recognize Bangladesh's independence and did so with no issues. The United States however, was an ally of Pakistan both materially and politically, and as a result they did not support India's taking of 90,000 Pakistani POWs. The U.S. saw India's actions as threatening especially since India had just became a nuclear power and maintained close military ties with the U.S.S.R. The Soviet Union supported both the armies of Bangladesh and India and thus supported Bangladesh's unwaveringly. As a result of Soviet support, all nations that were part of the Warsaw Pact also recognized Bangladesh's independence. Soviet backing ensured that the states in the U.S.S.R.'s sphere of influence, including Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania all recognized Bangladesh's independence. China, despite being a communist nation, was also an ally of Pakistan and did not support the measures India took to have Bangladeshi sovereignty recognized. China even went as far as vetoing Bangladesh's application to become a member of the United Nations and was one of the last nations in the world to recognize Bangladeshi independence, not doing so until 31 August 1975.
