The next day, Kler came back from Bakhshiganj to meet the young Captain who had kept his brigade at bay for almost three weeks and to see the fortifications for himself. The air attacks had not even made a dent on the concrete pillboxes. On the way, he collected Gurbux Singh and was driving with him in a jeep near the post when they hit a stray anti-tank mine. The jeep blew up under them and the General had one of his feet shattered, thus becoming the first general officer casualty of the war in Bangladesh. Kler got away lightly with damage to his knees and spine, but was badly shaken. The General was evacuated from the sector and it fell on Maj Gen Gandharav Nagra to take over operations the next day. Nagra was moved from 2 Mountain Division, which was stationed in a dormant sector against the Chinese. He brought with him his skeleton staff advisers and some signal and services detachments.
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Bakhshiganj was the next defended locality held north of the Brahmaputra along the Mahendarganj-Bakhshigang-Jamalpur axis. The Pakistani forces were holding Sherpur on the parallel axis, thus denying both axes effectively. It was reported that the outer defences at Bakhshiganj were based on concrete fortifications on the periphery of the village and spread over a perimeter of about 800 to 600 yards, and the inner defences on the builtup area. 1 Maratha Light Infantry group, based on manpacks and bullock carts, proceeded towards Bakhshiganj along the village track bypassing Kamalpur on the night of 3 December. By first light the following morning, they had managed to establish a firm base northeast of the village and created a roadblock cutting off Bakhshiganj from Sherpur, and were poised to attack the village.
Some 50 assorted small arms were found in the village, but all the Pakistani troops managed to get away intact.
Similarly, 13 Rajputana Rifles Battalion Group followed a dirt track two kilometres east of Kamalpur and established itself north of the village, cutting off the Kamalpur-Bakhshiganj road. By dawn, the Bakhshiganj defences were effectively cut off from the north, northeast and southeast by regular troops, while the south was covered by the Mukti Bahini. The siege of Bakhshiganj defences was ostensibly complete. The garrison tried to tackle the roadblock, but was promptly dealt with by the Maratha roadblock company, as a result of which some vehicles were destroyed and nine men, including the company commander, Maj Ayub, were killed. The rest got away. Throughout the day of 4 December, the garrison remained surrounded and subjected to artillery and long range machine-gun fire, and it retaliated in a rather half-hearted manner.
The garrison commander had presumably been in touch in the day with happenings at Kamalpur and was aware that he would be subjected to the same treatment. Night descended, but there was not much exchange of fire. In the early hours of 5 December, Indian patrols discovered that Bakhshiganj had been abandoned. The garrison had withdrawn at night along the southern road towards Jamalpur through Mukti Bahini roadblocks without interference, as the Mukti Bahini felt that the strength of the withdrawing columns was far greater than they could cope with.
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