On 21 July 1954, the United Front of Goans (led by Francis Mascarenhas) forced the Portuguese to retreat from the colonial enclave of Dadra, a small landlocked territory bordering Nagar Haveli. A group of volunteers from the National Movement Liberation Organisation (NMLO), an umbrella organisation involving revolutionary groups Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Azad Gomantak Dal, led an attack on Nagar Haveli on 28 July 1954, and took it on 2 August. Despite successfully conquering the territories, India did not immediately assimilate these enclaves into the Indian Union. For some time, both enclaves functioned as de facto independent states, administered by the Varishta Panchayat of Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli.