Operation X - India's untold story of India's Covert Naval War In East Pakistan

In April 1971, the Indian Navy's Directorate of Naval Intelligence set up a covert maritime warfare unit - Naval Commando Operations (X) (NCO[X]). This black unit's existence was known to very few even within the navy. Its covert operation aimed at disrupting the maritime commerce lines that sustained the Pakistan Army in its eastern province. Over the next few months, this irregular unit, comprising Indian naval officers, divers, and former Pakistani submariners, set to work. They transformed over 400 Bengali youths from East Pakistan into combat swimmers, trained to assault merchant ships. The gunboats of NCO(X)'s naval wing mined shipping channels and harassed shipping entering East Pakistan. The ferocious campaign waged by this tiny unit was without precedent in the annals of naval warfare. They sank and disabled over 100,000 tonnes of shipping in the province , in support of the government of Bangladesh in exile. Their actions contributed towards India's ultimate victory in the eastern theatre of the December 1971 Indo-Pak war.Revealed for the very first time, here is the explosive authentic account - co-authored by a key NCO(X) member - of the guerrilla operation that went for the maritime jugular of Pakistan, and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh. 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in East Pakistan has just won an electoral mandate to become the prime minister of Pakistan. Accustomed to treating the eastern wing of the country as a colony, the ruling disposition in West Pakistan is not pleased, and launches a genocide against the residents of East Pakistan, flooding India with lakhs of refugees. With the violence in East Pakistan reaching a crescendo, the Indian government is faced with a difficult remain a mute spectator to the savagery on its eastern borders, or take action and go to war against its western neighbour. Thus was born Naval Commando Operation (X) - comprising Indian navy officers and divers, eight deserters from a Pakistani submarine and a ragtag bunch of Bengali youth fleeing the genocide - one of India's largest clandestine operations, meant to destabilize the West Pakistani efforts to bring East Pakistan to its knees. Revealed for the very first time, here is the explosive authentic account of the guerrilla operation that went for the maritime jugular of Pakistan, and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh. Title Page FOREWORD DRAMATIS PERSONAE PROLOGUE 1. GENERAL GENOCIDE 2. THE EMPEROR, KING COBRA AND THE WATER RAT 3. CAMP PLASSEY 4. NO MAN LIKE SOMAN 5. SECTOR X 6. JACKPOT 7. GUNBOATS ON THE GANGA 8. BEHIND ENEMY LINES 9. SAMMY’S TURTLES 10. FORCE ALFA 11. LAST BOAT SAILING 12. JOY BANGLA NOTES EPILOGUE TIMELINE 1971 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INSERT About the Book About the Author Copyright