Veraval, Junagadh

Spring 1948

Operation Hukum was not off to a good start.

The Pakistani units disembarking in Veraval found the place lawless and riven by conflict, with the police loyal to the Nawab of Junagadh killed or driven underground. People peered out of windows at these new armed men, but there was no joyous welcome awaiting the soldiers.

Two battalions of infantry in total disembarked in Veraval over the course of the day, and they swiftly occupied the port. Many remarked at how eerily quiet the city was while their commanders huddled around the shipboard radio set and communicated with command in Karachi.

The plan was thus: first, secure Veraval; second, secure Mangrol; third, secure the Nawab. The logistics of this mission were daunting, though. Mangrol was a 35 kilometer march along coastal roads, including a river crossing at the midway point and who knows how many hostiles. Junagadh was twice that distance, nearly 70 kilometers, and that was the most likely location of the Nawab.

Foremost, they needed help. It was too much ground to cover and they were outnumbered by a large factor-- so Pakistani commanders attempted to reach out to the remnants of the Junagadh security forces. Those few surviving members of that organization that the Pakistanis could find categorically refused to resume taking up arms against the Hindus.

The Muslim minority in Veraval, likewise, refused to take up arms. They were too few in numbers, the Pakistani military couldn’t adequately arm or supply them, and they knew what terrors awaited them if and when the RSS and the Hindu mobs got their hands on them.

There was also a frustrating lack of information-- no one in Veraval knew much about the Nawab’s whereabouts.

Stymied by the reticent population and the lack of information, but not stalled, the Pakistanis began to go about securing Veraval.

This was when things began to fall apart. While the Pakistanis deliberately went about attempting to build a foundation for advancing towards Manigol and Junagadh, the Hindus and the RSS collected militiamen in the city. Almost as soon as the Pakistani battalions began advancing beyond the perimeter they’d established in the port district, they came under attack.

Lightly armed Hindu militia and their fanatical RSS counterparts began skirmishing with the Pakistanis as they advanced, utilizing their superior knowledge of the terrain and the urban environment to inflict surprisingly heavy casualties. Pakistani attacks dispersed these militia when they engaged, generally, but it took the best part of three days to secure Veraval-- and even then, the base at the port was occasionally victim to the occasional sniper attack.

The thrust towards Mangol encountered light resistance until they reached the Vrajmi River, at where the Hindus had anchored their defense. Pakistani forces forced a crossing under sustained rifle fire, taking the heaviest casualties of their advance thus far, but once across the river they scattered the Hindus fairly effectively and proceeded on towards Mangol.

Mangrol, capital of the Princely State of the same name, the object of the miserable march along the coast, lay before the survivors and they were welcomed by the Sheikh of Mangrol. The battalion had suffered nearly 20% casualties-- 169 men wounded or killed, many left behind on the track from Veraval. The battalion commander cursed his misfortune, lamenting his losses.

What he could not have imagined at that time was how fortunate he was.

The small-unit mission north to rescue the Nawab of Junagadh was never seen again, presumed to be wiped out in its entirety after gunfire was heard from the distant north the afternoon of their departure. No relief mission was dispatched on the initiative of the local commander.

The garrison in Veraval, consisting of a battalion and the headquarters detachment of the entire landing force, spent their constantly beleaguered by militia. Pakistani killed and wounded mounted over time. They were woefully outnumbered, and the longer they stayed in place the more Hindus made the pilgrimage to Veraval. A large contingent from Junagadh arrived several days in to their stay, adding a number of almost one thousand to the militants. By day Hindu militants would take potshots at the garrison from the alleys and rooftops, and once those were secured they retreated to the alleys and rooftops beyond those, by night they banged pots and pans, blew horns, and fired weapons into the Pakistani camp to prevent them from getting any rest. The RSS, skilled bombmakers by now, began throwing improvised grenades over walls into the docks that would kill or wound several Pakistani soldiers at a time.

Staying put has locked the Pakistani battalion in place, and an impossible weight of numbers has pressed down on them and confined them to a shrinking cordon around the docks themselves. Supply ships come under poorly-aimed, long-range small arms fire as they attempt to dock. Some ships have been driven off by this, and crewmen have been wounded.

With the continuing arrival of Hindus the defenders of Veraval are now impossibly outnumbered, awaiting the final push of the Hindus to drive them into the sea. They pray for deliverance or, preferably, permission to retreat. Morale in the Veraval cordon is nonexistent, supply (particularly medical supplies, of which they have practically nothing) is poor-- the situation is desperate. The troops in Mangrol are more upbeat, but fully cut off from Veraval and with the spreading rumors of the Nawab's death have begun to question their purpose in this cursed land.