PPT on PNS GHAZI

1. SINKING OF
PAKISTAN NAVAL SUBMARINE GHAZI
PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN VICTORY OF
1971 WAR

2. PNS GHAZI ( S-130 )
• Originally a US Navy Submarine USS Diablo (SS-479)
from 1945 to 1963. In 1964 it was leased to Pakistan
under the Security Assistance Program(SAP) on a four-
year lease.
• DIABLO (DEVIL in Spanish) was renamed as GHAZI (A
Warrior) joined the Pakistan Navy and saw the military
actions in the Indo-Pakistani theaters in 1965 and, later
in 1971. A Tench-Class diesel-electric and the first fast-
attack submarine of the Pakistan Navy.

3. • Starting from being the only
submarine in the Indo-
Pakistani war of
1965, Ghazi remained the
Pakistan Navy's flagship
submarine until she sank
under mysterious
circumstances near
India's eastern coast while
conducting naval
operations en route to the
Bay of Bengal.

4. Ghazi, the submarine whose sinking tilted
the 1971 war in favor of India.
Indian historians consider the sinking of Ghazi to be
a notable event. They have described the sinking as
one of the "last unsolved greatest mysteries of the
1971 war."

5. MISSION OF PNS GHAZI
• Ghazi was on a two-fold mission: the primary goal was
to locate and sink INS Vikrant and secondary was to mine
India's eastern seaboard which was to be fulfilled
irrespective of the accomplishment of the first.
• On 14 November 1971, she quietly sailed 3,000 nautical
miles (4,800 km) towards Visakhapatnam with Cdr. Zafar
Muhammad as her C.O. with special instructions to reach
Vizag by 26 Nov and was instructed strictly to stay at
EMCON till Visakhapatnam.
• She was to report on arrival but no word was ever heard
from her.
• The fate of the GHAZI was in jeopardy before 3 Dec.

7. THE ‘VIKRANT’ PART

8. • Vice Admiral Krishnan on learning of the navy’s intercepts of
the Ghazi’s movements played a smart yet risky move. He
ordered the INS Vikrant and its entire convoy to relocate
to in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Since the Vikrant needed special oil for its tanks the Indian
Navy brought large quantities of it to Visakhapatnam. They
also made sure that heavy radio traffic should be transmitted
from Visakhapatnam to indicate that a large ship was docked
there to fool the Pakistani spies.

9. “ The Calm Before the Storm ”
• A SITREP expected from the submarine on 26
November was not received. Anxiety grew with every day
that passed after frantic efforts to establish
communications with the submarine failed to produce
results. Before hostilities broke out in the West on 3
December, doubts about the fate of the submarine had
already begun to agitate the minds of submariners and
many others at Naval Headquarters.

10. News that shook both the Navies
• The first indication of
GHAZI’s tragic fate came
when a message by NHQ
India, claiming sinking of
GHAZI on the night of 3
December was intercepted
by the Pakistan Navy but
Indian Navy officially
declared it on 9 December.
• India too lost a corvette class
frontline ship.

11. Google location of sunken
Ghazi

12. WHAT LEAD TO THE SINKING OF PNS GHAZI
• Till date this is one of the biggest mystery of the 1971
war.
• Claims by both the navies are different.

13. INDIAN VERSION OF THE INCIDENT
• The mysterious sinking of Ghazi took place on 4 December 1971 during its
hunt to find Vikrant and/or during the mine laying mission on
the Visakhapatnam Port, Bay of Bengal.
• On 16 November, she was in contact with the Navy NHQ and Commander
Khan charted the coordinates that reported that she was 250 nautical miles
off Bombay.
• The Top Secret files were opened as instructed and the hunt
for Vikrant began on 23 November and Ghazi was off to Madras where
reportedly the Indian aircraft carrier was stationed but she was 10 days late
and Vikrant was now actually somewhere near the Andaman Islands.
• Unable to detect her target, Ghazi's commanders became disillusioned about
their hunt for Vikrant and turned back to Visakhapatnam to start laying mines
off the harbor.

14. • On 1 December 1971, Vice Admiral Nilakanta Krishnan briefed
Captain Inder Singh, the C.O. of INS Rajput, that a Pakistani
submarine had been sighted off the Sri Lankan coast and was
absolutely certain that the submarine would be somewhere around
Madras or Visakhapatnam.
• According to Indian claims, at 2340 hrs on 3 Dec 1971 Rajput moved
through the channel to the exit from Visakhapatnam.
• Exactly at midnight, shortly after passing the entrance buoy, the
starboard lookout reported a breaker on the surface right on the
nose. Captain Singh changed the course at full speed and ordered to
drop two depth charges, which was done. The explosions were
"stunning“.
• On the night of the 4–5 December 1971, Ghazi sunk with all 93
servicemen on board

15. INS RAJPUT

16. PAKISTANI VERSION OF THE INCIDENT
• The Naval Intelligence conducted its own investigations and its military
oversights stated that Ghazi sank, when the mines it was laying, were
accidentally detonated.
• Prior to her deployment, Ghazi continued to experience equipment failures
and reportedly had aging issues.
• Another reason given by the PN is that the explosive shock waves caused by
the depth charges may have detonated the torpedoes and mines on the sub.
• The Navy NHQ counter-argued: Ghazi itself may have inadvertently passed
over the mines during the mine laying operations.
• In addition the NAVAL INTELLIGENCE also exposed that the crew of Ghazi had
never practiced with the lying of mines.

17. NEUTRAL WITNESSES AND ASSESSMENTS
• An Egyptian Navy officer stated that at the time of the blast the
Indian vessels were docked at the dockyard.
• Many independent writers and investigators
maintained Ghazi was sunk mysteriously not by two depth
charges alone– Ghazi may have sunk either by the hydrogen
explosion produced when the batteries were charging, or by the
detonation of a mine, or either by the sea floor impact while
trying to avoid the depth charge released by INS Rajput.

18. Recovery of sunken vessel
• In 1972, both the United States and the Soviet Union offered
to raise the submarine to the surface at their own
expense. The Government of India, rejected these offers and
allowed the submarine to sink
• In 2003, Indian Navy divers recovered few items from the
submarine and brought up six bloated bodies of Pakistani
servicemen.[All six servicemen were given military honorary
burial by the Indian Navy. One of the bodies of a Mater Chief
Petty Officer Mechanical Engineer (MCPOME-I) who had a
wheel spanner tightly grasped in his fist.