PNS Ghazi

Combat control center of Ghazi as periscope held by Cdr K.R. Niazi in 1965

On 5 August 1965 war broke out between India and Pakistan as a result of a covert infiltration in Indian Kashmir. Ghazi, was at that time under command of then-Commander Karamat Rahman Niazi, who would later ascend as a four-star admiral in the Navy.[41] Other officers who served in Ghazi were then-Lieutenant-Commander Ahmed Tasnim (later promoted as Vice-Admiral), Sub-Lieutenant Fasih Bokhari, and Lieutenant Zafar Muhammad who would later command her, as a Commander, in 1971.[42]

Notable commanding officers of Ghazi in 1965 included:

• • Cdr. K. R. Nyazi– Ofc–in–chrg. of Ghazi.
  • Lt-Cdr. Ahmed Tasnim–2nd-in-Cmd. of Ghazi
  • Lt. Z.M. Khan– Chief Navigation officer in Ghazi
  • S-Lt. Fasih Bokhari–then Torpedo officer in Ghazi
  • CPO Lal Khan Satti– chief quartermaster.

She was the only submarine in the conflict arena that was deployed in the war theatre, with a mission scope of attacking only heavy and major warships of the Indian Navy.[43] She only aided the tactical task force under the command of Commodore S.M. Anwar that launched a naval artillery battery on the Indian Air Force's radar station in Dwarka, Gujarat, India.[41] She was also seeking INS Vikrant, the only aircraft carrier, but did not detect her target during the entire conflict.[3] On 9 September 1965 INS Beas made an unsuccessful depth charge attack in an attempt to make a contact with Ghazi.[3]

On 17 September 1965 Ghazi made a surface contact and identified INS Brahmaputra and fired three World War II-era Mark 14 torpedoes and increased depth to evade counterattack.[3] According to submarine war logs three distinct explosions were heard at about the time when the torpedoes should have impacted but Brahmaputra was not sunk, neither had it been hit since the warship did not release depth charges nor had it detected the homing signal.[3] No ships were sunk or damaged in the area and Ghazi safely reported back to base.[3]

Upon her return she won ten war awards including two decorations of Sitara-e-Jurat, one Tamgha-i-Jurat and the President's citations and six Imtiazi Sanads while her commander, Cdr. K.R. Niazi was decorated with the Sitara-e-Jurat and chief petty officers were decorated with the Tamgha-i-Jurat.[41][42] It is not known what Ghazi's target was or what the three mysterious explosions were since no inquiry report was ever submitted.[3]

After the war in 1965–66 an arms embargo was placed on both India and Pakistan, but was later waived by the United States, strictly based on the cash and carry method as Ghazi badly needing refitting.[3] In 1967 the Navy applied to renew another four-year lease deal which was duly approved by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Government but her material state and equipment continued to deteriorate.^:108[16] The Navy then signed a deal with the Turkish Navy for a refit and mid-life update that was to be carried out at Gölcük in Turkey – the only facility to update the Tench-class submarines.[3]

Because of the Six-Day War in the Middle East the Suez Canal was closed due to the Egyptian Navy's blockage in 1967, Ghazi, under the command of Commander Ahmed Tasnim, had to execute a submerged circumnavigation in 1968 from Africa to Western Europe, which began from Karachi coast to Cape of Good Hope, South Africa and then through the Atlantic Ocean. It ended at the east coast of the Sea of Marmara where the Gölcük Naval Shipyard is located.^:108[3][16][6] Chief of Naval Staff Admiral S.M. Ahsan had arranged necessary refitting of Ghazi's computers at the Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) with help of the local industry such as DESTO.[6]

During her submerged circumnavigation voyage she briefly stopped at Mombasa, Kenya for refueling and, in Maputo, Mozambique before making a farewell visit at Simon's Town, South Africa.[6] After passing the Cape of Good Hope, she made another stopover at Luanda, Angola for victualing and continued her journey towards Western Europe to stopover at Toulon, France, where she was greeted by the French Navy.[6] Her final stopover was at İzmir in Turkey and she continued submerged through the east coast of the Sea of Marmara to dock at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard, which was the only facility to upgrade the Tench-class based computers and other electromechanical equipments.[6] It took her two months to complete her circumnavigation of Africa and Europe.[6]

Refitting and mid-life upgrading of her military computers reportedly cost ~$1.5 million ($11.1 million in 2015–16).[3] The program started in March 1968 and completed in April 1970 and it is believed that the U.S-made ill-fitted World War II era Mk.14/Mk.10 naval mines were bought "secretly" from Turkey.[3]

Under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Yousaf Raza, Ghazi returned to Karachi coast after successfully completing the submerged circumnavigation of Africa which was taken in order to undergo a refitting program and mid-life updates of her military computers on 2 April 1970.^:108[16][6]

In August 1971 the Indian Navy transferred INS Vikrant, its aircraft carrier, to the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, which forced the Pakistan Navy to adjust its submarine operations.[3] Before 1971 there were several proposals made to the Ayub administration to strengthen the naval defence of East Pakistan, but none were made feasible and the Navy was in no position to mount a defence against approaching Indian naval advances.[41] After the defection of Pakistan Navy's Bengali officers and sailors to India, the Eastern Command (Pakistan) was under intense pressure to counter the insurgency and the advance of the Indian Army towards East Pakistan on three fronts.[41] The Yahya administration insisted the Navy attempt to reinforce the naval defence of the East while the Navy NHQ objected to the idea of deploying Ghazi in the total absence of a seaport, straying away from their original plan.[41] Many senior commanders had felt that the deployment of Ghazi was highly dangerous and impossible to achieve by sending the obsolete submarine behind enemy lines but deployment came when it became apparent that war was inevitable.[41]

Prior to her deployment Ghazi continued to experience equipment failures and reportedly had aging issues. Since it was the only submarine of the Pakistan Navy and had the range and capability to undertake operations in the distant waters controlled by India, Ghazi was pressed into operation to destroy or damage Vikrant.[44] On 14 November 1971 she quietly sailed 3,000 miles (4,800 km) around the Indian peninsula from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal under the command of Zafar Muhammad, who commanded a submarine for the first time, with 10 officers and 82 sailors.[3][41] Ghazi was on a two-fold mission: the primary goal was to locate and sink Vikrant and secondary was to mine India's eastern seaboard, which was to be fulfilled irrespective of the accomplishment of the first.[3]

Another problem faced by PNS Ghazi was the poor conditions of maintenance facilities at Chittagong port in East Pakistan.[45]

According to Indian DNI's director Rear-Admiral Mihir K. Roy, Ghazi's existence was revealed when a signal addressed to naval authorities in Chittagong was intercepted, requesting information on a lubrication oil only used by submarines and minesweepers.[44][52]

Indian Navy intelligence tracked Ghazi with a codename issued as Kali Devi,[5] and the Indian Navy began to realize that the Pakistanis would inevitably be forced to send their submarine Ghazi to the Bay of Bengal, as the sole ship which could operate in these waters.[5]

Vice Admiral Nilakanta Krishnan of the Eastern Naval Command had maintained that it was clear that Pakistan would have deployed Ghazi in the Bay of Bengal and a part of its plan was an attempt to sink the Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant.[3] At the same time concerted action was taken to disseminate misinformation designed to mislead the enemy about the true location of the aircraft carrier, and to foster confidence that the carrier was stationed at Visakhapatnam.[3][48] In particular the D 41 Rajput was instructed to move from Vishakhapatnam to Madras, sending signals as if it were the Vikrant.

All these activities were apparently successful in deceiving Ghazi when on 25 November 1971, the Navy NHQ communicated with Ghazi that stated: "Intel indicates carrier in port".[49]

After the ceasefire in 1971, the Government of India undertook an investigation into the incident and immediately claimed that the submarine was sunk following the series of manoeuvres by the Indian Navy.[53] A submarine rescue vessel, INS Karanj was sent to check the debris and India later built a "Victory at Sea Memorial" on the coast near where Ghazi was sunk.[54] India credits the INS Rajput for sinking Ghazi and her crew were honored with gallantry awards for this event, but the actual details of Ghazi's sinking became unclear, as new narratives soon began to emerge after the war.[2]

The claim of sinking Ghazi has been the centre of controversy between the Indian authors, giving doubts in their theories of mysterious sinking of the submarine.[53] With Commodore Ranjit Roy testifying that "very loud explosion effects were heard at the beach that came from underwater."[53] Commodore Roy also concluded that "...at that time, how the Ghazi was sunk remained unclear as it does today."[53]

The official history of Indian Navy: ‘Transition to Triumph’, authored by retired Vice-Admiral G.M. Hiranandani, gave exhaustive account of the sinking of Ghazi and quoted that the naval records and top naval officials who commanded operations on the eastern seafront as saying that INS Rajput was sent from Visakhapatnam to track down Ghazi. The book also noted that the time of dropping of the charges, the explosion which was heard by the people of Visakhapatnam and that of a clock recovered from Ghazi, matched.[55] However, Admiral Hiranandani maintained that the submarine almost certainly suffered an internal explosion but its causes are debatable.[27]

Admiral Roy of India stated: "The theories propounded earlier by some who were unaware of the ruse de guerre (attempt to fool the enemy in wartime) leading to the sinking of the first submarine in the Indian Ocean gave rise to smirks from within our own (Indian) naval service for an operation which instead merited a Bravo Zulu (flag hoist for Well Done)".[52]

Admiral S. M. Nanda, Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy during the conflict, stated : "In narrow channels, ships, during an emergency or war, always throw depth charges around them to deter submarines. One of them probably hit the Ghazi. The blow-up was there, but nobody knew what it was all about until the fisherman found the life jacket".[56]

In 2003, the Indian Navy again sent its divers to overlook its investigation and the divers recovered some items including the war logs, officials backup tapes from her computers, and mission files that were displaced in Eastern Naval Command of Indian Navy, but the divers who studied the wreckage confirmed that the submarine must have suffered an internal explosion which blew up its mines and torpedoes.[57] Another theory suggests an explosion of hydrogen gas which violently built up inside the submarine while its batteries were being charged underwater.[27]

In 2010, Lieutenant-General J. F. R. Jacob of Eastern Command mentioned in an article that "Ghazi was destroyed in an accident in which Indian Navy was not involved. There were many opinions from authors of the Indian side who also shared this scepticism of the Indian Navy’s official stance."[58]

In 2010, it was reported that the Indian Navy had destroyed all records of the sinking Ghazi submarine.[59][60][61][62] Vice admiral G. M. Hiranandani, who was tasked with writing the official history of the navy, said that he was unable to obtain any old files regarding Ghazi sinking.[63] One of the retired navy officer who saw the action in 1971 said that the destruction of the Ghazi papers and those of the army in Kolkata depicts the many instances when Indian war history has been deliberately falsified. He further stated that 'We have enough heroes. In fog of war, many myth and false hero may have been created and many left unsung'.[7]

In 2011, former Indian naval chief, Admiral Arun Prakash quoted in the national security conference that [Ghazi] had sunk under mysterious circumstances, "not by INS Rajput as originally claimed."[64]

The sideview of Mk.14 torpedoes deployed in Ghazi

In 1972, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission (HRC) never carried out investigation into this incident despite its formation to assess the military and political failures of the country in the war of 1971.[65]

It was only on 10 February 1972, when the incident was officially recognised by the Government of Pakistan and then-President Zulfikar Bhutto met with the grieving families and loved ones of the officers and sailors who served in Ghazi, and told them that they may have all perished due to this incident as many of the slain family members were pushing for repatriation to the Government of Pakistan as they were keeping the hope alive that they may have survived and rescued by India.[53]

The Naval Intelligence conducted its own investigations and its military oversights stated that Ghazi sank, when the mines it was laying, were accidentally detonated.[66] Pakistani military oversights into this incident were not immediate instead, the Naval Intelligence took time to conclude its investigations that went on for several years.[3] Over the decades, the military oversights were kept hidden and were not known to the public until 1990s when the Navy made an announcement over the completion of its insights into this incident.[3][41] Following this announcement, Pakistan addressed the problems connecting the electromechanical failures, computer problems, and Mk.14 torpedoes' "circular deep running" once launched from the firing ship.[3]

Pakistan never accepted the theory from Indian Navy but provided its alternative insights into this disaster based on the investigations on the Mark 14 torpedoes and other vintage military equipment installed in Ghazi.[3] According to Pakistan Navy's investigation, there were two probable reasons connecting to this mishappening:

• *Magnetic Exploder/Hydrogen explosion: A Sargo-type lead-acid battery may have over-produced the Hydrogen gas during the charging of submarine's batteries that may have led to the violent internal explosion.[5]
• *Detonation of a mine inside the submarine: This was often cited by the Pakistan Navy as the World War II-era Mk.10/Mk.14 torpedoes may have deep "circular" run, failing to straighten its run once set on its prescribed gyro-angle setting, and instead, to run in a large circle, thus returning to strike the firing ship.[41][66][67][68]

Another theory from foreign experts, also favoured by Pakistan, is that the explosive shock waves from one of the depth charges set off the torpedoes and mines (some of which may have been armed for laying) stored aboard the submarine.[48][53] The Navy NHQ counter-argued: Ghazi itself may have inadvertently passed over the mines during the mine laying operations; patrolling Indian vessels or Indian depth charges might also have tripped the count mechanism of one or more mines.[53] Credibility is added to this story by the later discovery made by Indian Coast Guard divers in 2003, that the damaged parts of the submarine had been blown inside out.[48][69]

From the investigation conducted on the cause of the American USS Cochino, it is possible that the lead-acid battery vented explosive hydrogen gas while charging underwater.[70]^:215 Henceforth the hydrogen gas, if not properly vented, could have accumulated into an explosive concentration.[70]^:215

In addition, the NI's investigations also exposed the deployment of Ghazi when it was indicated that there was no indication that Ghazi's crew had ever practiced with mines, and most of its crew including its commanding officer were relatively new to the submarine for the magnitude of this type of deployment.[3] As opposed to the U.S. Navy service which had restricted to the personnel of 81, the Ghazi's complement was about 93, the award, Star of Courage, acknowledged that were there were 12 extra personnel aboard the boat at the time of its sinking.[71] An increase in the sub's total complement would put a strain on the logistical capabilities of a patrol because it reduces its duration.

In 2006, Pakistan, citing their evidences, rejected India's claim of sinking Ghazi and termed the claims as "false and utterly absurd".[4]

An independent testimony stems from an Egyptian naval officer who was at that time serving on an Egyptian submarine which was undergoing refit in the harbour. He has confirmed the occurrence of a powerful explosion in the vicinity of the harbor late at night. There were no naval ships, as reported by this officer, outside the harbor at that time and it was not until about an hour after the explosion that two Indian naval ships were observed leaving harbor.[24]

Some 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.[3][27][5]

In 2012, Pakistani investigative journalists from The Express Tribune who were affiliated with the Express News USA based in the Washington D.C. were able to get in touch with Diablo's' retired and now-aged former US Navy crew members who were allowed to study the sonar pictures and sketches of the sunken vessel where they believed that: "an explosion in the Forward Torpedo Room (FTR) destroyed the Ghazi."[58] This view is also shared by Indian journalist Sandeep Unnithan, who specializes in military and strategic analysis.[58][72]

In 1972, both the United States and the Soviet Union offered to raise the submarine to the surface at their expense.[52] The Government of India, however, rejected these offers and allowed the submarine to sink further into the mud off the fairway buoy of Visakhapatnam.[52]

In 2003, Indian Navy divers recovered few items from the submarine and brought up six bodies of Pakistani servicemen when they blasted their way into the submarine.[27] All six servicemen were given military honorary burial by the Indian Navy. Items recovered were the back-up tapes of the radar computers, war logs, broken windshield, top secret files, as well as one of the bodies of a Petty Officer Mechanical Engineer (POME) who had a wheel spanner tightly grasped in his fist.[27] Another sailor had in his pocket a letter written in Urdu to his fiancée.[27]

In 2003, additional photos were released by the Indian Navy of the vessel.[27]

In 1972, Ghazi and her serving officers as well as crew members were honoured with gallantry awards by the Government of Pakistan.[8][73] After the war, President Richard Nixon forgave the remaining debt of Ghazi to Pakistan when the U.S. Navy's CNO Admiral Elmo Zumwalt visited Admiral Mohammad Shariff in Calcutta in 1972.^:219–226[52] In addition, she remained the first and to-date the only U.S.-built submarine to have served in the Pakistan Navy, although in successive years, only surface warships had been acquired through transfers from the United States as Pakistan worked towards building its own long-range submarines, the Agosta 90B, through a technology transfer from France.[74]

At the Naval Dockyard in Karachi, a 'Ghazi Monument' was built to perpetuate the memory of the submarine and its 93 men.[71] In 1974, the naval base, PNS Zafar, was commissioned and constructed in the memory of Commander Zafar Muhammad Khan that now serves as the headquarter for Northern Naval Command.[71] In 1975, the Navy acquired the Albacora-class submarine from the Portuguese Navy and named it Ghazi (S-134), in memory of PNS Ghazi.[75]

Her loss to the Pakistan Navy through an accident was a watershed and a significant event, leading the Navy's engineering to the implementation of a rigorous submarine safety programme.[53]

In 1998, the Inter-Services Public Relations produced and released the film, Ghazi Shaheed which starred Shabbir Jan as commander of Ghazi, and Mishi Khan as Commander's wife; the film is based on the events involving Ghazi's mission and the lives of men who served in Ghazi.[76] Another movie, Untold Stories: Ghazi and Hangor were sponsored and released by the ISPR to commemorate Ghazi and her crew during their missions in 1971.[73] In 2017, an Indian film was based on this submarine attack named The Ghazi Attack.

In 2016, PNS Hameed was commissioned where Ghazi was honoured and is a namesake of her first officer, Lt-Cdr. Pervez Hameed.[77]

• Commander Gordon Graham Matheson–U.S. Navy officer and her first commanding officer, commanded from 1945–1946.[78]
• Commander Karamat Rahman Niazi– later appointed as the four-star rank admiral, commanded from 1964–66.
• Commander Ahmed Tasnim– Hangor's commander in 1971 and later Vice-Admiral, commanded Ghazi from 1966–1969.
• Lieutenant Commander Yousaf Raza– commanded Ghazi from 1969–1971
• Commander Zafar Muhammad– the last commander until her sinking in 1971.