Operation X: A Covert Mission in East Pakistan

Introduction

Operation X was a highly covert naval mission carried out just before the India-Pakistan War of 1971, the government of India burnt all the papers and files belonging to this operation, but if we are reading this article today, all its credits go to Capt. Mohan Narayan Rao Samant, MVC. He wrote a book named 'Operation X' with the help of a journalist Sandeep Unnithan which is based on his memoir of the happenings in 1971, otherwise, nobody, even in Indian Navy can prove the happening of the said operation.

Image 1: From left to right; Book Cover, Capt. MNR Samant, Sandeep Unnithan

The Partition

On the midnight of 14-15 August 1947, Pakistan was separated out of India accompanied by the largest migration of 1 crore people in human history followed by the communal riots leading to one of the century's bloodiest civil wars.

Almost 39 crore people were divided into two countries- India and Pakistan. Pakistan was geographically strange having two parts(West and East) separated by 1600 km of Indian territory.
    

Image 2: Map at the time of partition

The area which is coloured orange in Image 2, represents Pakistan and the patterned area is Kashmir which was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh, who was undecided on joining either country.

West and East Pakistan

The government in Pakistan was not very stable, the top army leaders abrogated the constitution and imposed martial law(military government) by dissolving parliament and overthrowing the president.

Then, on 28th, November 1969, army chief General Aga Muhammad Yahya Khan, clarified that he did not want to make martial law a permanent feature in Pakistan and he called for the general elections at the end of 1970. It was Pakistan's first general elections based on the one-person-one-vote principle. In these elections held on 7th, December 1970, unexpected by General Yahya, Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman swept the elections by winning 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan, which meant that, for the first time, West Pakistan will be ruled by a party from the East. 

This mandate was the result of brazen neglect of East Pakistan by the Western rulers even though:

1. East Pakistan had more share(around 70%) in exportable commodities(mainly jute and tea) which fetched more foreign reserve in the country than West Pakistan.

2. 56% of the total population lived in East Pakistan.

3. Share in imports by East Pakistan was only 33%.

Even after such a significant contribution in foreign exchange and development by the Eastern part, they got:

1. Only 4% of foreign aid and 34% of US aid.

2. East Pakistanis made up only 5% of Pakistan's Army's Officer Corps. 

3. Urdu only was recognised as the official language of Pakistan, due to which Bengali Muslims were handicapped in the competitive examinations.

This behaviour of West worsened the relationship between the two parts and the Bengali Muslims felt that they are colonised by it.

After the elections, tensions rose between the Urdu-speaking and Bengali-speaking people in the Eastern part which led to attacks on some pro-west people and using violence as an excuse, the Pakistan Army intervened to stop the growth of nationalist sentiments and launched a massive crackdown firing tanks, rocket launchers, recoilless guns and mortars in the universities, schools and houses. Some 1,50,000 people had been butchered in cold blood, martial law was declared again and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was declared a traitor and his party was banned. 

The military action was a display of stark cruelty, merciless than the massacres at Bukhara and Baghdad by Changez Khan and Hulagu Khan or at Jalianwala Bagh by the British general, Dyer.

Lt Gen A.A.K Niazi, Pakistan Army 

 Role of India

To save their lives, lakhs of Bengali Muslims flooded into India as refugees and the East Pakistani leaders set-up a government of exile in Kolkata and they were now fully determined to kick the Pakistani forces out of 'Bangla Desh' and fight for their independence.

Image 3: Bengali refugees in India

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi closely monitored each and every moment in East Pakistan and finally decided to intervene. She passed a resolution in parliament saying, 

The people of East Bengal are being sought to be suppressed by the naked use of force, by bayonets, machine guns, tanks, artillery, & aircraft. This house calls upon all peoples and Governments of the world to take urgent and constructive steps to prevail upon the Government of Pakistan to put an end immediately to the systematic decimation of people, which amounts to genocide.

PM Indira Gandhi in Parliament

 

The decision was highly inspired by Ashoka, an Indian Emperor, who after seeing the destruction caused by wars set-up a kind and prosperous state, and from whom, the Republic of India has borrowed its emblem 'The four Sarnath' and 'The Dharma Chakra'. 

Image 4: The Four Sarnath and The Dharma Charka

The Indian government also drew its attention to the teachings of Acharya Chanakya, who was a great teacher and political advisor of Ashoka's grandfather Chandragupt Maurya, who in his book 'Arthshastra' talked about three kinds of wars:

1. Open war

2. Silent war

3. Concealed or guerilla war

India adapted itself to all the three types to help 'Bangla Desh' get independence from West Pakistan. This was the first time after independence, in which, India was preparing for war. 

A provisional government of Bangladesh was set up with Shiekh Mujibur Rahman as its President and defence minister Col. Ataul Gani Osmani took command as the Commander-in-chief of the Bangla Desh forces i.e. Mukti Bahini/Mukti Fauj(Liberation Force). The Indian government started providing covert support for the arming and training of the Mukti Bahini, which was made up of around 20,000 men of East Pakistan Rifles & East Bengal Regiment who had taken shelter in India.

Image 5: Mukti Bahini being trained (Image Credits: www.gettyimages.in)

Planning and training

The basic idea behind the operation was to paralyse the supply of jet fuel, gasoline for tanks, ammunition for guns and wheat to make Rotis for West Pakistani soldiers in Bangla Desh.

There were two possible routes through which West Pakistan could reach to its Eastern part, one is air route through Indian airspace and second is the sea route. The air route was already blocked for its aircrafts by India because of a recent hijack of a plane, so the only route available was the sea route.

They used to unload all there supplies on Chittagong harbour and from there it was loaded in small boats and delivered to various inland ports deep inside the Bangla Desh.

Image 6: Ports, Harbours and inland waterways

   Captain Mihir Kumar Roy(later Vice Admiral) developed a plan to destroy the vital infrastructure of inland ports, damage ships, blocking waterways, cutting anchors & cables, setting-up traps, damaging fuel installations and destruction of port communication. The plan was to be executed in three stages and needed nearly 200 teams of 600 commandos.

There were 8 Bengali mutineers from Pakistan Navy, who were conducting trial runs of a newly inducted french submarine PNS Mangro in France. When they got to know about the genocide of Bengalis in East Pakistan by the Pakistan army, they escaped to India with fake passports managed by the Indian embassy, to join the liberation force. Captain Roy wanted this ex-Mangro crew to help in recruiting volunteers from different Mukti Bahini reception camps to form a strong naval commando unit. 

Only three naval officers and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had full knowledge of the operation which included Captain MNR Samant and two others were Admiral SM Nanda, the chief of Indian Navy and Captain MK Roy, the director of India's Naval Intelligence.

The plan was to unfold in three stages:

1st Stage[ 50 teams; concentrated in ports & harbours]

    Maximum damage to ports of Chalna/Khulna and Mongla by blocking the harbours, sinking ships, barges and river steamers through limpet mines[Image 7 below].

2nd Stage[100 teams]

    They will move up inland from the ports to suspend movement in the inland waterway system i.e. the rivers and channels.

This stage involved sinking ships using limpet mines, obstructing channels, removing navigational marks, planting under-water obstructions.

3rd Stage:

    To paralyze ports, harbours, communications and the entire inland waterway system.

Image 7: Limpet Mine

When the volunteers were recruited they were sent to a camp in Plassey, code-named as C2P(Camp 2 Plassey). It was exactly the same place where the famous 'Battle of Plassey' was fought between the British and Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last nawab of Bengal over 200 years ago.

The camp commander at C2P was Captain MNR Samant and training coordinator Lt Commander G Martis both from the Indian Navy. There were a total of 20 training instructors including 8 Bangladeshi submariners. The navy aimed to transform their recruits into underwater weapon delivery units- assault swimmers who could swim up to 6 hours at a stretch carrying 3 to 4 kg limpet mine under all conditions like rain, night or in zero visibility conditions.

They were trained for almost 15 to 18 hours daily. The trainees were required to be educated besides having physical endurance as they were theoretically trained about the use of explosives, the role of a waterborne destroyer, recognizing the type of ship from its silhouettes and then identifying its vulnerabilities from the waterline - the engine room, magazine area, etc.

The 8 Bangladeshi submariners played an invaluable role in filling the communication gap between the instructors and trainees.

By the mid-July 1971, the first batch of commandos was ready for operation. Captain Samant was responsible for the field execution of the operations.

Operation Jackpot

A series of operations was to be executed which was named as NCO(X) i.e Naval Commando Operations(X).

The first operation that was conducted under NCO(X) was named 'Operation Jackpot'. This operation was planned in the last week of July, under tight security. Selected commandos were sent from C2P to forward bases in Tripura and West Bengal for a final briefing. Three teams were made and launched from three different sectors.

Sector 1 - Team going to Chittagong

Sector 2 - Team going to Chandpur and Narayanganj

Sector 9 - Team going to Mongla

Each team was led by the ex-Mangro crew. The commandos carried a pair of fins, a knife, a limpet mine and swimming trunks. Some had compasses, sten guns, hand grenades and the team leaders carried a transistor radio.

After entering Bangla Desh between 3 to 9 August, they reached their destination by 12th August. Two songs were to be played on Indian Akashvani radio at specific timings to signal them for commencing the operations. The first song (Amar putul ajke prothom jabe shashur bari) was played on 13th August and the second song ( Ami tomay joto shuniyechilem gan tar bodole chaini kono dan) on 14th August.

In the night of 15th August 1971, the commandos executed the operation and sank 25 ships, destroyed around 60,000 tonnes of ammunition, petrol, edibles and other supplies and leaving the Chittagong port permanently incapable of offloading any further shipments from abroad, all the commandos returned India safely. Many such attacks were carried out and in total 1,00,000 tonnes of shipping was destroyed by the naval commandos trained by Capt. MNR Samant. 

The successful operation made it clear to us that, given proper guidance and leadership, our boys could achieve miracles. They were all sincere and intelligent and ready to grasp any situation quickly. Their mental calibre was undoubtedly superior to that of the illiterate Pakistani soldiers. We were gifted with the largest educated guerrilla force.

Captain Islam

In September 1971 the second wave of 160 assault swimmers was launched into Bangladesh. Port of Chittagong, Khulna, Chalna, Barisal, Chandpur were targeted and around 23,000 tonnes of shipping was sunk and destroyed. On 22nd September, Capt. Samant ordered to convert two boats named Padma and Palash into gunboats fitted with 40/60 mm Bofors guns and two anti-ship mine rails each.

Image 8: Gunboat

Operation Hot Pants

In this operation Capt. MNR Samant himself was in the field and their aim was to block the water channels by sinking the ships. They mined the entrance of the Pusur river and shipping channel and the Padma and Palash attacked the Khulna-based British merchant ship named MV City of St. Albans.

Many more such kind of operations were carried out by the Indian Navy and the Indian Army along with the IAF until Pakistan surrendered on 16th December 1971 and Bangladesh was born. This was the first time when India carried out such large scale integrated operations with Army, Navy and Air force.

Most of the stories of bravery you would have heard must be of the army or air force. So, I wanted to bring in light the contribution of Indian Navy in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan. Capt. MNR Samant was honoured with 2nd highest award for gallantry, the Maha Vir Chakra after his exemplary performance in training the Mukti Bahini naval commandos, planning and successful execution of the NCO(X). He was also appointed as the first Chief of Naval Staff of the Bangladesh Navy and awarded with Friends of Liberation War honour by the Government of Bangladesh. We salute armed forces who helped the Bengalis in their hard time and kicked out the bloody Pakistanis from Bangladesh.

On 20th March 2019 at 1155 hours, this great hero of India and Bangladesh breathed his last at the age of 89 in Mumbai but his courage, bravery and valour will always inspire the coming generations.

If you want to read and dig deeper into the picture, you can purchase the book through this Amazon link below: 

Jai Hind.

References:

1. Operation X: The Untold Story of India's Covert Naval War in East Pakistan by Captain MNR Samant and Sandeep Unnithan.