The 1971 war was decided in the east and fought hard in the west. Punjab's sector saw the actions at Fazilka, at Hussainiwala, and the largest armoured battle of the war at the Basantar river in the Shakargarh bulge.
At Basantar, Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal of the Poona Horse, twenty-one, held a position after his squadron was reduced and was killed in his tank. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. So was Lance Naik Albert Ekka in the east and Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, of Isewal in Ludhiana district, who took off alone from Srinagar under attack and was killed. He is the only Indian Air Force officer to receive the award.
At Hussainiwala the bridge over the Sutlej was held and then blown. The memorial there to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev was damaged in the fighting and rebuilt.
Fazilka was held at the Sabuna drain. The Asafwala memorial holds the dead of that action.
The war ended on 16 December in the east and 17 December in the west. Punjab's border districts absorbed the fighting on the western side.
The heaviest armour fighting on the western front in 1971 was at Basantar in the Shakargarh sector, and Punjab-recruited units were in it throughout.
The Fazilka and Hussainiwala sectors saw hard fighting and the Hussainiwala memorial area was lost and later exchanged.
The war ended in the east and the western front settled back on the line it had started from, with adjustments confirmed under the Simla agreement in 1972.