Operation Dwarka - The Naval Attack

The Naval Attack

On the night of September 7 Pakistan Navy launched its assault on Western Indian shores. Dwarka was chosen for its proximity (200 km from Karachi Port), its lower defences and historical relevance. The plan called for a fleet of 7 naval vessels of Pakistan to bomb the tiny town of Dwarka. It was aimed at luring the major ships anchored in Bombay to attack the Pakistan ships. The intention was that the submarine PNS Ghazi lurking in the Arabian Sea would then take out the Indian ships. Accordingly a fleet of seven ships comprising PNS Babur, PNS Khaibar, PNS Badr, PNS Jahangir, PNS Alamgir, PNS Shah Jahan and PNS Tipu Sultan set sail for Dwarka and bombed the tiny town.

The heavy ships could not be attacked by the submarine PNS Ghazi as the ships in Bombay were under refit, and it did not encounter the active combatants on the West coast. The objective to divert the Indian Air Force attacking Pakistan's Southern front worked as the Indian Airforce raids on the city of Karachi ceased, presumed by Pakistani sources to be due to lack of availability of the radar guidance to the IAF fighter jets, which was damaged in the attack.

Indian Navy's official version states that at around 2355 hours, the Pakistani vessels fired over the main temple of Dwarka for more than 20 minutes. The ships fired around 50 shells each, which included some 5.25 inch rounds fired by the Pak cruiser PNS Babur. It adds that most shells fell between the temple and the railway station, which lay 3 km from the lighthouse. Some buildings were hit, with only the Railway Guest House suffering some minor damages and a cement factory of Associated Cement Company was also hit and smoke could be seen 20 km away by Pakistani ships.

The radar installation was shelled during the bombardment but neither the radar was damaged nor were any casualties reported by Indian sources. A frigate INS Talwar was in nearby Okha port undergoing repairs and did not intervene. Hiranandani's history of the Indian Navy states that:

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 had damaged a railway engine and blown off a portion of a railway guesthouse.

A total of forty unexploded shells were also recovered intact. Interestingly, the shells bore the mark "INDIAN ORDNANCE"; these were dated from the 1940s - period before the Partition of India and creation of India and Pakistan.

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