When Indian Navy sank Pakistan's PNS Ghazi: US submarine strike on Iranian warship echoes 1971 war moment

• PNS Ghazi sank near Visakhapatnam during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
• INS Rajput's depth charges believed to have destroyed Ghazi.
• The event marked a turning point in India's naval dominance.

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When the US Navy fired a powerful Mk 48 torpedo from the USS Charlotte and sank Iran's IRIS Dena, Washington did something it had not done in the last 80 years.

This was the first time since World War II that a nation torpedoed an enemy's warship. While the March 4 incident has turned the Indian Ocean into a war zone and brought the conflict closer to New Delhi, this is not the first time the region has witnessed naval action of this magnitude.

Th sinking of an Iranian warship by the United States off the coast of Sri Lanka has revived memories of one of the most dramatic naval episodes in South Asian history-the destruction of PNS Ghazi during the India-Pakistan war of 1971.

In 1971, Pakistan launched a secret mission aimed at eliminating India's aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which was considered the Indian Navy's most valuable maritime asset. At the time, the carrier was undergoing repairs and maintenance. To carry out the mission, Pakistan deployed its most capable submarine, the US-leased PNS Ghazi. The submarine was assigned two objectives: locate and destroy INS Vikrant and assert Pakistani naval presence in the Bay of Bengal.

Pakistani planners believed that INS Vikrant was stationed near Visakhapatnam. However, the Indian Navy had quietly moved the carrier to the Andaman Islands to keep it out of danger. To maintain the illusion, India deployed the destroyer INS Rajput to patrol the waters off Visakhapatnam.

On the night of December 3, 1971, INS Rajput reportedly detected suspicious underwater movement near the harbour entrance. In response, the crew released depth charges in the suspected area. Soon after, a powerful underwater explosion was recorded. The next morning, debris believed to be from PNS Ghazi was discovered floating near the entrance of Visakhapatnam harbour.

Pakistan later suggested that the submarine was destroyed due to an internal accident. However, Indian naval accounts and later assessments maintain that INS Rajput's depth-charge attack led to the submarine's destruction.

PNS Ghazi, originally obtained from the United States, was Pakistan's only long-range submarine capable of conducting extended operations in distant waters. It had been specifically tasked with tracking and eliminating INS Vikrant. Instead, the mission ended with the submarine's loss, along with all 93 personnel on board, including ten naval officers.

The destruction of PNS Ghazi became a defining moment in India's naval history. Along with operations such as Operation Trident and Operation Python, which inflicted heavy damage on Karachi harbour, it helped establish India's dominance at sea during the conflict.

The 1971 war itself was triggered by the struggle of Bangladesh-then known as East Pakistan-to gain independence from West Pakistan. India's naval operations played a crucial strategic role during the conflict, complementing actions by the army and air force while severely restricting Pakistan's maritime capabilities and securing control over key sea routes.