THIS day (Nov 14) 50 years ago, a valiant and veteran unit of the submarine force of Pakistan Navy, PNS/M Ghazi (S-130), sailed for a daring operation in which the submarine was lost under mysterious circumstances. The daring operation, had it succeeded in its entirety, would have been a tremendous demoralising factor for the Indian navy.

Historians and strategists acknowledge that the plan of the ‘twin mission’ — to sink an Indian aircraft carrier, and to mine a principal port of the enemy — had the ingredients whose shock effect alone would have been sufficient to cause the naval situation in the Bay of Bengal to undergo a drastic transformation, affecting carrier-supported military operations in the coastal areas and indeed the very direction of Indian naval plans for decades to follow.

It is essential to preserve the memory and pay homage to PNS/M Ghazi (S-130) and remember the sacrifices rendered by the crew.

We should also acknowledge the effects created by the valiant submarine’s induction in Pakistan Navy in 1964, and its illustrious deployment in the 1965 war.

Its last deployment deserves special credit on three main counts. One, despite being of old vintage, its crew had ensured a material state of readiness that allowed it to sail and deploy on time at the assigned location; two, its ability to achieve surprise by maintaining stealth throughout the 3,000 nautical mile passage from Karachi to Visakhapatnam; and, three, its ability to execute the tenets of its operation, as assigned, on Dec 3, 1971, the day of the commencement of the war.

By doing so successfully, it harassed the enemy by timely deploying influence mines at the entrance to the enemy’s primary port of Visakhapatnam. Enough evidence exists that its loss was not as a result of any enemy action, but an unforeseen accident, a professional hazard, that befell the vessel.

Even in the face of such misfortune, the leadership skills of its commanding officer, and the dedication of its 93-member crew that included 11 officers, is most noteworthy as they made it possible for the submarine to execute the assigned task without much training on all its aspects.

Ahmed Zaheer
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2021