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Commodore A.W Chowdhury
Commodore A.W Chowdhury is a senior naval officer of the Bangladesh Navy who retired in January 1997. Professionally, Commodore Chowdhury remained a very sound naval officer of the Executive Branch of the Navy during his 35 years of service in various capacities. He is a qualified Submariner and a Long Gunnery Specialist with 'psc' from the Defence Services Command & Staff College. He led 'Operation Jackpot' at Chittagong Port and cut the lifeline of Pakistani Forces by sinking ships in Karnaphuliriver. After the war, over his next 25 years of service, he attended various courses/seminars home and abroad and commanded a number of ships with a long length of sea service. He also represented Bangladesh in 1995 for the South East Asia Symposium under Pacific Command in Hawaii, Japan, South Korea and Singapore and received the Best Award forInternational Human Relationship amongst 20 participants out of 18 countries. Commodore Chowdhury is widely known as a pioneer war hero of Bangladesh and for leading the submariner from France, the first team to join war from abroad, and forming/leading Naval Commandos for operations.He has been awarded the highest gallantry awards as recognition.
Session
Operation X: The War that Changed the Indian Subcontinent
Sandeep Unnithan and Commodore AW Chowdhury in conversation with Commodore Srikant Kesnur and opening remarks by H.E. Vikram Kumar Doraiswami, The High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh
Commemorating the anniversary of the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan, Operation X written by Capt MNR Samant and Sandeep Unnithan is the untold story behind one of the world’s largest covert naval wars. Naval Commando Operations (X) was the Directorate of the Naval Intelligence’s code for a series of complicated guerrilla operations directed against the maritime jugular of the Pakistan Army in erstwhile East Pakistan. These innovative sabotage missions, executed with specially-trained East Bengali college students, were part of India’s assistance to the Mukti Bahini guerillas in the months preceding the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war , NCO(X) used the largest number of maritime saboteurs in the history of modern naval warfare to achieve its objectives. Author Sandeep Unnithan, Executive Editor of India Today, has also written the book Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11. Commodore Abdul Wahed Chowdhury of the Bangladeshi Navy was the Chief of Operation Jackpot, one of the three operations undertaken by the Bengal Mukti Bahini along with the Indian government. In a conversation with naval historian Commodore Srikant Kesnur, they discuss the inner world of this conflict and its many intricacies.