Truth is
stranger and more thrilling than fiction
HarperCollins
India brings you
the explosive
authentic account of the covert guerrilla operation
that went for
the maritime jugular of Pakistan, and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh
THE HEROIC
MISSION UNDERTAKEN BY CAPTAIN MNR SAMANT AND HIS BAND OF BRAVE MEN
About the Book
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 military dictatorship of General Yahya Khan in West Pakistan
launches a genocide against the residents of its eastern wing, flooding India
with lakhs of refugees. With the violence in East Pakistan reaching a
crescendo, the Indian government is faced with a difficult option: 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 Operations (X) – comprising Indian navy officers and divers, eight
deserters from a Pakistani submarine, and a ragtag bunch of educated 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 covert guerrilla
operation that went for the maritime jugular of Pakistan, and facilitated the
birth of Bangladesh.
“I had heard from sources
about the exploits of the Bangladeshi Mukti Bahini frogmen and the Indian Navy
personnel in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. I was then pleasantly
surprised to discover that Capt. MNR Samant (now 89), who headed the Naval
Commando Operation X, was a neighbour of mine. I was introduced to him by Cdr
Kapil, a mutual acquaintance. But at that point I had absolutely no idea how
big the Operation X covert effort was, or how enormously significant its
results were to the course of the war in 1971.
Operation X was a
covert maritime warfare unit established in April 1971 and run directly by the
Directorate of Naval Intelligence. The unit, a grouping of submariners,
aviators and specialist divers, was tasked with waging strategic guerrilla
warfare in the seas and rivers of erstwhile East Pakistan. They fought a
tenacious four-month riverine guerrilla war which has few precedents in recent
history, and which to a great extent determined the outcome of the 1971 war.
It took us nearly two
years to put this book together. A lot of initial research had been done by
Capt. Samant and Cdr Kapil, but a lot more additional information was needed.
What made our task doubly difficult was the fact that almost fifty years have
passed since the 1971 war: most of the principal characters are no longer there
and few records have survived. Old diaries, notes and of course extensive
interviews with the surviving personnel helped us reconstruct the events of
1971. Cdr Kapil and I toured Bangladesh in 2017 to visit key places associated
with the operation and to meet with former naval commandos. The story that
emerged was a breathtaking, thrilling one.
We hope this book will pay
tribute to all the fearless men and women who fought the war for the liberation
of Bangladesh.” – Sandeep Unnithan, co-author, Operation X
“It’s really exciting for
us at HarperCollins to be publishing the untold story of Operation X, the
covert naval intelligence operation that played a significant role in the 1971
war with Pakistan. Operation X reads like an edge-of-the-seat thriller, but
everything in the book is true, and uncovered through meticulous research. The
details of this stunning covert operation are now revealed to readers for the
very first time. I’m truly grateful to Captain MNR Samant and Sandeep Unnithan
for bringing this thrilling true story to light in such a remarkable way. This
May, readers will be able to encounter an unrevealed glorious chapter of
India’s naval intelligence triumph in the 1971 war with Pakistan, and
appreciate the heroism and sacrifices made by the Mukti Bahini and the Indian
Navy in the course of the Bangladesh Liberation War.” – Udayan Mitra, Publisher
– Literary, HarperCollins India
About the Authors
Captain MNR Samant
(1930-2019) was a recipient of India’s second-highest gallantry award, the Maha
Vir Chakra, for conspicuous gallantry in the face of enemy fire during the 1971
India-Pakistan War. He was Staff Officer, G1 (Nav Ops X) of this covert naval
warfare unit. He passed away on 20 March 2019.
Sandeep Unnithan is an
executive editor with India Today where he writes on security-related issues.
He is the author of Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11.
