On December 4, a day after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 broke out, an oil spill appeared near the coast off Vishakapatnam, on India’s Eastern coast. The Indian Navy patrol boat, INS Akshay, was sent out to investigate. The first diver didn’t take long to verify the cause – a sunken submarine.
The second diver took his time below the depths. He returned with a startling report; it was a Pakistani submarine owing to its Urdu markings. And its mouth had been blown wide open. There was no internet to id a ship by its characteristics, but there was a copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships. Thumbing through the pages, Lieutenant Sridhar More identified it as Pakistan’s Naval trump card – the PNS Ghazi.
Submarines can level unequal playing fields in a matter of moments. The Indian Navy enjoyed a technological and numerical superiority over Pakistan, which is why Ghazi was dispatched from West Pakistan. Its mission – India’s flagship vessel, the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. Though an ageing submarine, Ghazi had the longest range of any vessel in both the Indian and Pakistani navies.
So why was it at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal? The fact that Akshay ‘discovered’ the vessel points to the absence of an Indian Navy assault on the submarine’s position. In later days, India claimed that the cruiser INS Rajput posed as Vikrant to lure Ghazi out into the open – and sunk it with depth charges. But Pakistan contests this version for a more honourable explanation – Ghazi was sunk by one of its own mines, as it sought to make the waters in front of the Eastern Naval Command at Vishakapatnam unpassable.
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