Operation Jackpot, a glorious chapter of the 1971 Liberation War

'Operation Jackpot', described as one of the most comprehensive simultaneous naval commando operations in the history of human warfare, nearly fell through but for a smart Bengalee woman.

Mostafa Yusufbdnews24.com
Published : 16 Dec 2015, 09:16 AM
Updated : 16 Dec 2015, 09:46 AM

This amazing story of the lady deciding to accompany her husband and the 'Jackpot' mastermind Abdul Wahed Chaudhury (later Commodore), braving all the risks involved, has come to light in an interview with bdnews24.com.

Engineer Azizur Rahman told bdnews24.com that a few days before the commando strike on the Chittagong harbour, Abdul Wahed Chaudhury decided to check out personally the readiness of the naval commandos positioned in different parts of the port city.

"As I was about to drive away Wahed Chaudhury and fellow freedom fighters Khurshid Alam and Shah Alam, my wife  insisted on accompanying us. She said we might evoke suspicion as we were all men," Azizur Rahman said.

After completing his check on preparedness of the naval commandos, the vehicle carrying Wahed Chaudhury , Khurshid Alam and Shah Alam was stopped by Pakistan soldiers at a checkpost near the CGS colony.

"My wife immediately came forward and told the Pakistani soldiers that we were returning from a dawat (dinner invitation). I quickly showed them my identity card. The Pakistanis were convinced and let us go," Azizur Rahman said.

"Jenana hain, chhor do (There is a woman, leave them)," is what Azizur recalled the Pakistanis as saying.

Having got through the checkpost, Wahed Chaudhury launched the operation on the night of 14-15th August when the Pakistanis were busy observing their independence day.

"That was a close shave," recalls Azizur Rahman, a senior technical official of the state-owned Eastern Refineries in 1971.

That is why he could ferret out much information on Pakistani naval movements that proved useful for Wahed Chaudhury to target the ships docked in Chittagong harbour.

"If we were caught at that checkpost, we would have all died. Operation Jackpot would have never happened," recalls Azizur with obvious pride.

Azizur was a tenant at Khurshid Alam's house Sufia Manzil and had come in close contact with the freedom fighters.

Khurshid recalls that most of the naval commandos were positioned in safe-houses in and around the Alkaran area of Chittagong.

"Having checked out their preparedness and morale, we were returning to Sufia Manzil when we found the Pakistani army checkpost at CSG colony," Khurshid recalled.

"Getting through that checkpost was crucial," he says."Or else Jackpot would have failed before it started."

That night, the naval commandos mined and sank 11 ships in Chittagong alone.

"Next day, I went to inspect the damage in the harbour and the channel. It was considerable. The Pakistanis were demoralised," recalls Azizur.

They sank 14 other ships similarly at the ports of Chandpur, Mongla and Narayanganj. 

Jackpot destroyed the Pakistani claims of normality and hit the morale of their troops badly.

 Huge amount of war material was also sunk and the ports were clogged.

Some war historians have described 'Operation Jackpot' as the turning point of the Liberation War.

"It was the first real sledgehammer blow the Bengalee freedom fighters had struck at the formidable Pakistani military machine," India's former chief of Naval Intelligence Rear Admiral Mihir Roy said later in his book ‘War in the Indian Ocean’. 

Nine Bengalee submariners from the Pakistani submarine ‘Mangro’ killed their Punjabi superiors and managed to take shelter in the Indian embassy in London.

They were brought back to India via Madrid, Barcelona and Rome and then sent to Plassey, on the banks of Bhagirathi River in West Bengal.

For three months, an Indian naval operation group led by Commodore David Felix and supervised by Mihir Roy trained 160 Bengalee naval commandos. 

The defecting Bengalee submariners, like Abdul Wahed Chaudhury, provided the leadership while the best swimmers from the Mukti Fauj camp were picked up by the Indian Navy for training.

The operation was planned in the last week of July, under tight security. 

Information on river tides, weather and East Pakistan naval infrastructure and deployment was collected through the Mukti Bahini. Selected commandos were sent to forward bases in Tripura and West Bengal, where a final briefing was given to them. 

Mukti Bahini in Sector No. 1 assisted the group going to Chittagong, Sector No. 2 aided the groups going to Chandpur and Narayanganj and Sector No. 9 assisted the group targeting Mongla.

Each commando carried a pair of fins, a knife, a limpet mine, and swimming trunks. Some had compasses, one in three commandos had Sten guns and hand grenades, the group leaders carried a transistor radio. 

All the groups carried their own equipment to their targets and after entering Bangladesh between Aug 3 and 9, reached their destinations by Aug 12, using the local Mukti Bahini network of safe-houses. 

A pair of songs was played in India Radio (Akashbani) at specific times to convey the intended signal for commencing the operations. The first song (Amar putul ajke prothom jabe shoshur bari) was played on Aug 13, the second song (Ami tomay joto shuniyechilem gan) on Aug 14. These songs were coded signals for the phased go-ahead for the operations.

Chittagong

Sixty commandos were divided into three groups of 20 each, but one group failed to arrive due to Pakistani security on time.  Thirty-one commandos mined 10 ships instead of 22 initially planned on Aug 16. Between 1:45 and 2:15am, explosions sank the MV Al-Abbas, the MV Hormuz and the Orient barge no. 6, sinking 19,000 tons of arms and ammunition along with damaging and sinking seven other barges and ships.

Chandpur 

Twenty commandos were sent to mine ships at Chandpur.  Eighteen commandos divided into six groups, mined four ships. Three steamers and barges were damaged or sunk.

Narayanganj

Twenty commandos conducted the sabotage operation. Four ships were sunk or damaged.

Mongla

Sixty  commandos went to Mongla port. This team was divided into five groups of 12 members each. Ultimately 48 commandos mined six ships at Mongla. Twelve commandos had been sent on a separate mission.

Some Bollywood directors and producers are currently planning a war film centred round 'Operation Jackpot'.