On the night of 7 September, the
Pakistan Navy launched its assault on
Western Indian shores.
Dwarka was chosen for its proximity 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 , , ,
PNS Jahangir, , and
PNS Tippu Sultan set sail for Dwarka and bombarded the town. The bombardment continued past midnight. The Indian warships harbored in Mumbai were under refit and were unable to sortie, nor did
Ghazi encounter active combatants on the West coast. 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 radar installation was shelled during the bombardment but neither was the radar damaged nor were there any casualties according to Indian sources. The frigate
INS Talwar was in nearby
Okha Port undergoing repairs and did not intervene. Hiranandani's history of the
Indian Navy states that: 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.
Naval command The following is the list of commanding officers of the operation: •
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. ==Aftermath==