India heaped praise on retired lieutenant general Jagjit Singh Aurora who died of a heart attack at a New Delhi military hospital at the age of 89.

Aurora's funeral will take place Thursday with full military honours, an army spokesman said. He is survived by a son and daughter.

Born in February 1916 in what is now Pakistan's Punjab state before the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, Aurora joined the army in 1939 and fought alongside British forces in Myanmar during World War II.

"General Aurora was the principal architect of India's victory in the Bangladesh war and he will be remembered as a great war strategist and a great son of India," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The turbaned Sikh is best remembered as the chief of India's eastern command who led Indian troops and Bangladeshi guerrillas to victory over Pakistan in December 1971 after a bloody conflict.

"Aurora's name had become synonymous with the highest level of patriotism as well as pride for every Indian soldier," the defence minister said.

Aurora secured the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers in the war that resulted in the emergence of Bangladesh as a separate nation.

A picture of Aurora watching Pakistan's eastern forces commander General A.A.K. Niazi signing the treaty of surrender December 16, 1971 is commonly found in Indian history books.

Bangladesh, too, mourned Aurora's death.

"General Aurora will be remembered in the history of Bangladesh for his contribution during our War of Liberation when he led allied forces, culiminating in the surrender of occupation forces," Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan said in a letter to his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh.

Following the surrender signing in Dhaka, the Pakistani commander handed over his pistol to Aurora. Afterwards a cheer went up at the race course where the ceremony took place and Dhaka became capital of an independent Bangladesh.

Aurora's daughter Anita Kalra said her father conducted Niazi's surrender following India's 17-day war with Pakistan with "great dignity."

"My father was a gentlemen and after the surrender he called Niazi an 'honorable enemy' and treated him with great dignity," Kalra told reporters.

When Niazi died last year, Aurora remembered him as a man of few words.

"I am sad. I came to know him first when we were together at a college in Quetta and after that I met him during the Bangladesh war. He has been a quiet chap," Aurora said.

Aurora was a veteran of India's three wars with rival Pakistan.

Besides 1971, he also took part in India's first and second wars with Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir in 1947 and in 1965.

Bangladesh formed part of India when Britain ruled the subcontinent.

After the subcontinent was carved up at independence in 1947, Bangladesh became known as East Pakistan.

Aurora retired some 35 years ago, the army said.

During his retirement, Aurora championed India's Sikh minority cause.

He was critical of then prime minister Indira Gandhi's decision in 1984 to send troops into the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, in the northern city of Amritsar to flush out militants.

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