Operation Dwarka

The mission objectives of the Pakistan Navy were:{{cite web |url=http://www.paknavy.gov.pk/history.html |title=History |author=Unspecified |publisher=Pakistan Navy |access-date=10 November 2011}}

• To draw heavy enemy units out of Mumbai for the submarine {{ship|PNS|Ghazi||6}} to attack.
• To destroy the radar installation at Dwarka.
• To lower Indian morale.
• To divert the Indian Air Force's efforts away from the North.

Many Pakistani sources describe the operation as at least partially successful, while many Indian ones dispute this.

On the night of 7 September, the Pakistan Navy launched its assault on Western Indian shores. Dwarka was chosen for its proximity {{nowrap|{{cvt|200|km}}}} from the Karachi Port, its relatively weak defences and historical political prominence. The plan called for a fleet of seven naval vessels to shell the town of Dwarka. The attack was aimed at luring the heavy ships anchored in Mumbai into attacking the Pakistani ships to enable the submarine PNS Ghazi lurking in the Arabian Sea to engage and sink the Indian ships. Accordingly, a fleet of seven ships comprising {{ship|PNS|Babur|1956|6}}, {{ship|PNS|Khaibar|1956|6}}, {{ship|PNS|Badr|1957|6}}, PNS Jahangir, {{ship|PNS|Alamgir|1958|6}}, {{ship|PNS|Shah Jahan|DD-962|6}} and PNS Tippu Sultan set sail for Dwarka and bombarded the town. The bombardment continued past midnight.{{Cite web |date=2022-09-06 |title=Operation Dwarka 1965: A golden chapter in naval history |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/988834-operation-dwarka-1965-a-golden-chapter-in-naval-history |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=The News International |language=en}}

The Indian warships harbored in Mumbai were under refit and were unable to sortie, nor did Ghazi encounter active combatants on the West coast.Hiranandani (2000), pp 34–35. "FOCIF sailed with his flagship, INS Mysore, and three escorts out of Bombay Harbour and remained on station without encountering any Pakistani naval vessels till 8 September when the Talwar, returning from Okha, joined her." According to Pakistani sources, the objective of diverting the Indian Air Force from attacking Pakistan's southern front worked as air raids on the city of Karachi ceased. This was presumed to be due also to the lack of availability of the radar guidance, which Pakistan claimed was damaged in the attack.

The Indian Navy's official version of events is that, around 23:55 hours, the Pakistani vessels fired on Dwarka for more than 20 minutes. The ships fired around 50 shells each, which included 5.25 inch rounds fired by the Pakistani cruiser PNS Babur. The report adds that most shells fell between the temple and the railway station, which lay {{nowrap|{{cvt|3|km}}}} from the lighthouse. Some buildings were hit, with the Railway Guest House suffering significant damage along with a cement factory. Smoke from the damage was visible to the Pakistani warships, approximately {{nowrap|{{cvt|20|km}}}} away.{{cite web |url=http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1965war/1150-dwarka.html |title=The Shelling of Dwarka |author=Madan, Ramesh (Ex-Sgt, IAF) |work=Bharat Rakshak |publisher=Bharat-Rakshak.com |access-date=6 September 2020}}

The radar installation was shelled during the bombardment but neither was the radar damaged nor were there any casualties according to Indian sources.Hiranandani (2000), pp 34–35. The frigate INS Talwar was in nearby Okha Port undergoing repairs and did not intervene. Hiranandani's history of the Indian Navy states that:

{{quote|Next morning she (INS Talwar) was directed to send a team to Dwarka to assess the damage. The team found that most of the shells had fallen on the soft soil between the temple and the radio station and failed to explode. The air attack damaged a railway engine and destroyed a portion of a railway guesthouse.}}

A total of 40 unexploded shells were also recovered intact. The shells bore the mark "INDIAN ORDNANCE"; these were dated from the 1940s before the Partition of India into India and Pakistan.

Radio Pakistan, however, transmitted that Dwarka was badly damaged.

{{unsourced section|date=September 2022}}

The following is the list of commanding officers of the operation:{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}

• Commodore S.M. Anwar, OTC – Officer Commanding of Operation Dwarka and the Commander of the Pakistan Fleet (COMPAK)
• Captain MAK Lodhi – Commanding Officer of PNS Babur, the light cruiser.
• Captain A Hanif – Commanding Officer of PNS Khaibar, the destroyer.
• Commander IH Malik – Commanding Officer of PNS Badr, the frigate.
• Commander KM Hussain – Commanding Officer of PNS Jahangir, the destroyer.
• Commander Iqbal F. Quadir – Commanding Officer of PNS Alamgir, the destroyer.
• Commander SZ Shamsie – Commanding Officer of PNS Shah Jahan, the destroyer.
• Commander Amir Aslam – Commanding Officer of PNS Tippu Sultan, the destroyer.
• Commander Karamat Rahman Niazi – Commanding Officer of PNS Ghazi, the submarine.
• Commander Muhammad Ismail – Commander Signals, PNS Tippu Sultan, the destroyer.

For some, Operation Dwarka was a significant naval operation of the 1965 war,{{cite book|last=Kavic|first=Lorne J.|title=India's quest for security: defence policies, 1947–1965|url=https://archive.org/details/indiasquestforse00kavi|url-access=registration|access-date=8 November 2011|year=1967|publisher=University of California Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/indiasquestforse00kavi/page/190 190]}} but others considered it a nuisance raid or of little strategic value.{{cite journal|author=Donohue, H. J.|title=Maritime lessons from the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war |journal= Working Paper|issue= 192|issn=0158-3751|publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University|year=1989| isbn=9780731508068}}{{cite book|last=Ghosh |first=Anjali|title=India's Foreign Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y32u4JMroQgC&pg=PA63 |page=63 |access-date=8 November 2011|date=1 September 2009|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-1025-8}}{{cite book|last=Dittmer|first=Lowell|title=South Asia's nuclear security dilemma: India, Pakistan, and China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuKWbnl-y5MC&pg=PA77|year=2005|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-1419-3|page=77}} The Indian Ministry of Defence had issued written instructions which ordered the Indian Navy "not to proceed two hundred miles beyond Mumbai nor North of the parallel of Porbandar".{{cite book|last1=Pradhan|first1=R. D.|last2=Chavan|first2=Yashwantrao Balwantrao|title=1965 war, the inside story: Defence Minister Y.B. Chavan's diary of India-Pakistan war|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ymYCJQjEGBUC|year=2007|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0762-5|page=117}} The authors were the Defence Minister of India and his Private Secretary from 1962-65 (see pg xiii). The lack of response by the Indian Navy to the attack on Dwarka led to questions being asked in the Parliament of India and a challenge to be answered by others.Hiranandani (2000), pg 52.Sardar FS Lodi, [http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/jan/agosta.htm An Agosta Submarine for Pakistan]{{cite book|last=Roy|first=Mihir K.|title=War in the Indian Ocean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tqr8r7EB18wC|year=1995|publisher=Lancer Publishers|isbn=978-1-897829-11-0|pages=84|quote= 'But the Bombayites failed to understand the lack of success by the Indian fleet, especially with sirens wailing, Jamnagar attacked and Dwarka shelled. But nonetheless, the naval bombardment of Dwarka with the Indian fleet still preparing to sail was an affront to the sailors in white, who could not understand what was holding the fleet back.' }} The Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral B.S. Soman was restrained from retaliation for the Dwarka raid by the Defence Minister. Of the Indian Navy's 23 ships, ten were under refit in Mumbai, including the INS Vikrant, the light cruiser INS Delhi, three destroyers and two frigates.{{cite web |url=http://www.defencejournal.com/march98/pak3wars1.htm |title=Pakistan and its three wars |author=Qadir, Iqbal, Vice Admiral (retd)|year=1998 |publisher=defencejournal.com |access-date=10 November 2011}} An Indian source explained this by saying that the Indian government did not want to get into a naval conflict with Pakistan, but wished to restrict the war to a land-based conflict.{{cite journal|last1=Hiranandani |first1=Vice Adm Gulab, IN (Retd) |date=Spring 2002 |title=The Indian End of the Telescope – India and Its Navy |journal=Naval War College Review |volume=LV |issue=2 |url=http://www.usnwc.edu/press/Review/2002/spring/art4-sp2.htm |access-date=8 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060916122311/http://www.usnwc.edu/press/Review/2002/spring/art4-sp2.htm |archive-date=16 September 2006 }} The failure of {{INS|Talwar|F140|6}} to retaliate, then undergoing repairs to her condensers in Okha,Hiranandani (2000), pg 34. "Talwar encountering contamination of her boilers due to leakage of her condensors put in at Okha for temporary repairs." has been lamented by Indian Vice Admiral N. Krishnan who said that no government would blame a warship going into action, if attacked.Roy (1995), pp 84–85. 'As Vice Admiral N. Krishnan is supposed to have said. "One of our frigates Talwar was at Okha. It is unfortunate that she could not sail forth and seek battle. Even if there was a mandate against the Navy participating in the war, no Government could blame a warship going into action, if attacked. An affront to our national honour is no joke and we cannot laugh it away by saying 'All the Pakistani's did was to kill a cow'. Let us at least create a memorial to the 'unknown cow' who died with her boots on in a battle against the Pakistan Navy."' PNS Ghazi continued to patrol Kachchh and Mumbai coasts spotting aircraft positions when snorkeling.Roy (1995), pp 83–85.

The Dwarka raid is considered by Pakistani sources as being a prime reason for the Indian Navy's subsequent post-war modernization and expansion, with an increase in budget from {{INRConvert|35|c|lk=on|year=1965}} to {{INRConvert|115|c|year=1970}}. The Dwarka raid, as per an Indian historian G. M Hiranandani, led to the procurement of missile boats by the Indian Navy from the Soviet Union for the Defense of Kutch. These were subsequently used by India in Operation Trident in the 1971 war.Hiranandani (2000), pg 326. However, he attributes the expansion of the Indian Navy in the period 1965 to 1975 to the post-1962 planned expansion of the Indian Navy with many ships being negotiated and purchased from the Soviet Union prior to the war.Hiranandani (2000), pp 8–11.

In 1998, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) financed and produced the historical dramatization film of the operation named, Operation Dwarka, 1965, which was based on this incident. The film was directed by Pakistani film director Qasim Jalali and it was written by Hameed Kashmiri.{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsHv5a0wnVc |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/rsHv5a0wnVc |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Operation Dwarka 1965 |publisher=Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) |via=YouTube |access-date=2020-09-05}}{{cbignore}}

• Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
• Indo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971
• {{ship|PNS|Ghazi||6}}
• {{ship|PNS| Hangor|S131|6}}

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Hiranandani|first=G. M.|title=Transition to triumph: history of the Indian Navy, 1965–1975|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFyMKROi46kC&pg=PA33|date=January 2000|publisher=Lancer Publishers|isbn=978-1-897829-72-1}}

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Category:Military operations of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965

Category:September 1965 in Asia

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Category:Naval battles of Indo-Pakistani wars