Operation Hotel Intercontinental

Operation Hotel Intercontinental was an attack on the InterContinental Dhaka by members of the commando unit of Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation war. The attack took place on 9 June 1971 and damaged claims by Pakistan that the situation in East Pakistan was under control.

Formation and deployment of Crack Platoon
In June 1971, World Bank sent a mission to observe the situation in East Pakistan. The media cell of Pakistan government was circulating a news that situation in East Pakistan was stable and normal. Major Khaled Mosharraf, a sector commander of Mukti Bahini, planned to deploy a special commando team. The task assigned to the team was to carry out commando operations and to terrorise Dhaka. The major objective of this team was to prove that the situation was not normal. Moreover, Pakistan at that time, was expecting economic aid from World Bank. The plan was to make World Bank mission understand the true situation of East Pakistan and stop sanctioning the aid. Khaled along with Major ATM Hyder (a former SSG Commando), another sector commander, formed the Crack Platoon. Initially, number of commandos in the platoon was 17. They received commando training in Melaghar Camp. From Melaghar, commandos of the Crack Platoon headed for Dhaka on 4 June 1971 and launched the guerrilla operation on 5 June. Later, the number of commandos was increased, the platoon was split and deployed in different areas surrounding Dhaka city.

Operation Hotel Intercontinental: Hit & Run
In the very beginning of June, 1971,Major Khaled Mosharraf and Major ATM Hyder sent the commandos of Crack platoon in the Dhaka City. Coming in Dhaka, the commandos planned to launch an operation in the city. They first targeted the Hotel Intercontinental because a delegation team from World Bank came to Dhaka to observe the situation of East Pakistan. The Pakistan Government was trying to show them that everything was normal. The Mukti Bahini saw this as an opportunity for them to show the world that nothing was going normal in East Pakistan.The purpose of the mission was to stop the World Bank Aid Mission and Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, head of the UNHCR, from providing financial assistance to the Pakistani junta.

In 9 June 1971 the commandos launched the first attack at InterContinental Dhaka. The commandos used a car, they stopped their car in front of the hotel and was waiting. They were armed with ENERGA grenade,bayonets, and Submachine gun. Commando Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya lobbed the first grenade. Second grenade was thrown by another commando named Badal and third was thrown by Zia. The fourth and fifth grenade was thrown by Maya again. It was a hit and run operation. According to plan, after completing the operation they rapidly left the place without taking any casualty. The operation was reported in BBC news. That was, many Pakistani soldiers were killed and wounded.