Operation X by M N R Samant & Sandeep Unnithan

Author:M N R Samant & Sandeep Unnithan
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: null
ISBN: 9789353570200
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2019-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

NCO(X) had already anticipated this enhanced vigil. After the shock of the initial wave of attacks, they deduced, their limpeteer commandos would be up against a more determined and vigilant enemy. ‘Undetected passage to the targets would become increasingly difficult,’ Commander Samant had predicted in his 17 June report to Admiral Nanda. Stage II and Stage III operations, as outlined by DNI Roy, would be impossible without stealthy rebreather sets which recirculated the carbon dioxide exhaled by a diver and left no trail of bubbles. The cash-strapped navy had ruled out using rebreather sets at the start of the operation. It did not have the funds to import them. Besides, it would have meant a longer spell of training the commandos as specialist clearance divers. This meant that the naval commandos would have to carry out missions at even greater personal risk.

On 19 September, Aku Roy, heading the naval detachment in Agartala, sent out an assessment of the developments in Sector X. In his five-page handwritten note sent to Samant in his neat cursive hand, he analyzed the raw intelligence flowing into Delta Sector. With road and rail traffic being increasingly disrupted by the Mukti Bahini and attacks by limpeteer-commandos, the Pakistan Army had begun herding ships carrying their essential supplies into river convoys in order to safely move essential fuel stores, war material and troops by day. The convoys comprised six to ten vessels, comprising some steamers, coasters, coalers and barges. Some vessels, were fitted with three-inch mortars ready to fire, and had sandbagged protection for exposed guards or crew members. Most vessels had between half to a full section of armed guards, possibly a mix of Pakistan Army regulars and a mix of Pakistan police and razakars.34

The officer-in-charge of the convoy ensured the usual anti-frogmen and anti-limpet–mine precautions were taken by the convoy and escorts. The escorts were naval or modified gunboats, usually armed with one or two 75 mm recoilless guns and one or two light machine guns (LMGs) or medium machine guns (MMGs). Several civilian motor launches had been converted into gunboats. One of them, the Tufail, had been named after a Pakistani officer of the 1965 war.

Vessels did not move at night. They stopped at a protected IWT port where they were herded into a ‘safe zone’ that was under floodlight and heavily guarded by sentries and armed patrol boats.

Aku advised Sector Commander Brigadier Shabeg Singh and the Mukti Fauj sub-sector commanders to increase riverine warfare activity by laying ambushes against the enemy and countering their new tactics, but it became increasingly clear to his bosses in New Delhi and Fort William that their operation would have to be shifted into a higher gear. New tactics would have to be drawn up. This would mean expanding the scale of the covert naval campaign.

Hydrographer Mitter

‘The commander-in-chief wants to see you,’ the officer of the day (OOD), Lieutenant K.P. Vidyadharan hailed Lieutenant Suvesh Kumar Mitter as he walked down the gangplank of the INS Darshak. ‘Of course he does,’ Mitter laughed, acknowledging one of the commonest young officer pranks.

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