The last article I wrote on PNS Ghazi was in December 2000, published in Dawn and Pak Defence Military Consortium website, http://pakdef.org/a- forgotten- heroic- feat/. While writing that piece, I discovered that there was not even an iota of info about Ghazi on Google. Today a search prompts more than 58,000 sites in less than 0.27 seconds.

On December 10, 2003, a team of divers from the Eastern Indian Naval Command was sent down to have another look at Ghazi’s wreckage. As described by the team Ghazi sat on an even keel (in a stable position) covered by thousands of fishing nets. The outer skull had almost been eaten away by corrosive sea water, exposing the internal coral encrusted steel structure and the internal pressure hull which was peeled outwards about a 100 feet from the forward torpedo room (FTR), almost to the conning tower.

Findings of this under water expedition removed several ambiguities present in the earlier versions related to Ghazi’s ultimate fate. First and foremost, the loss of Ghazi was due to an internal explosion. Also it rules out the possibility that inadvertently Ghazi became a victim of its own mines during the process of mines’ placement deep down in the bottom of the sea at Vishakhapatnam, the headquarters of the India’s Eastern Naval Command. Retired Vice Admiral M.K Roy (Director of Indian Naval Intelligence in 1971) in his book War in the Indian Ocean (written in 1996) states that six bloated bodies were recovered. But they were not charred or burnt. That excludes the possibility of an internal fire too. The nature of the mechanical damage to the hull which was bending outwards suggested that the sub Ghazi almost certainly suffered an internal explosion but the causes of explosion are debatable. Earlier Vice Admiral Krishnan in his book Surrender of Dacca published in 1997 had stated explicitly that India had nothing to do with the sinking of Ghazi and that it sunk because of an act of God.

While speculating the causes of the internal explosion websites differ in various accounts and remain a mystery. However, Suresh Bhave’s version seems to be closest to reality since he has done lots of research work before penning his findings. Here is a brief description of Ghazi’s journey of no return and how it met its ultimate fate.

Forty-four years later, the mortal remains of the heroes of PNS Ghazi still rest inside a steel hull, buried under tons of water and mud, deprived of a decent burial

Pakistan Navy’s submarine PNS Ghazi sailed out of Karachi harbour at 2200 hours on the night of November 14, 1971 with a crew of 92 officers and men. Commander Zafar received sealed orders from the Naval HQ, Islamabad marked “To be Read at High Sea”. As expected, when sealed orders were opened they read “Sink INS Vikrant”. It was to make its last report between Nov 26 to 28,1971, but by then Ghazi had lost all communication.

After traversing more than 3,000 km Ghazi reached Vishakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal without any major incident looking for INS Vikrant (the Indian Aircraft Carrier built originally under the name of Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II). Without going into detail, the Indians knew very well about the presence of Ghazi in the Bay of Bengal and had dispatched Vikrant far out of Ghazi’s reach.

It was on or around Nov 28 that destiny started playing dice with the valiant Ghazi’s crew. Ghazi was at periscope depth. In order to avoid a direct collision with INS Magar (Landing Ship Tanker) whose presence on the sea surface in the darkness was detected very late due to a miscalculated periscope distance reading, Ghazi took an immediate dive turning left away from the collision course dipping her bow in a dive that tilted up her stern. Ghazi was in shallow waters only about 100 feet deep. With huge momentum the nose of the 311 feet long, 2,400 tonnes heavy sub dashed into the rocky sea bed. Enormous impact made the hull rock and swung with noises of cracking metal, parts falling. Gradually the creaking and groaning hull settled on the uneven seabed. The impact had breached the fore torpedo room which flooded with water. One of the fired torpedoes was trapped shut in the torpedo tube. The crew from there onwards was sitting on an armed torpedo tube ready to fire making no distinction between friend and foe.

From Nov 28, Ghazi sat on the sea bed. The crew made all out efforts to make the sub rise till that fateful night between Dec 3 and 4 when the vibrations created by depth charge fired from another passing ship exploded the trapped torpedo and triggered a chain of explosions from weaponry (mines, torpedo, etc.) from within the sub. Ghazi became a part of history.

The explosions tore apart and peeled the outward significant part of her pressure hull and in a flash the sea was all over and inside Ghazi.

Those who passed away when the sub hit the sea bottom breaching and flooding the fore torpedo room were lucky since they embraced Shahadat earlier than those who had to live through the night to become martyrs. The misery, pain and agony suffered during the last five days were of such ominous proportions that the crew lived and died, several times over. It is said that before the blast on that December night, only a few crew members were alive.

Location of Ghazi’s wreckage is known precisely. It is lying in its muddy grave in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Vishakhapatnam at 17041’ 00” N and 830 21’ 05” E at a depth of about 32 metres.

Today, the Deep Sea Recovery industry has expanded frontiers and has advanced by leaps and bounds allowing investigators to work as deep as over three miles under the sea (a pressure of about 6,864 lbs per square inch). The reason behind such phenomenal advancement being that the industry found huge funding markets in insurance companies who wanted to stamp out shipping insurance swindles, off shore oil and gas companies, and the ever enthusiastic under-sea treasure hunting companies and individuals. Let me quote David Gallo Director of Special Projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (the Massachusetts based research outfit that helped find Air France flight 447 which disappeared in the mid Atlantic Ocean in 2009), “It used to be that when a ship sank in the deep sea, we would commit the ship and the souls for eternity to the deep — gone forever. That is not true anymore.” Blue Fin-21 and so many other state of the art AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) are now used for discovering and subsequently recovering ships, planes wreckages and other objects consigned to oblivion under the sea from centuries.

Exact location of the mortal remains of my brother and his comrades is known to me, yet for these last 44 years, my wishful thinking has been to get to their remains somehow. Is there no real closure for the Ghazi family. After such a long time one hardly expects any bodies to be recovered but just a piece of clothing, a shoe, a stray suitcase, a cap, a wallet or anything that belonged to our loved ones would be a consolation.

All these multi-billion dollar companies involved in under the sea recovery can they do something in the name of humanity.

nasirkhansak@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 1st, 2015

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