Kompromat
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1971 War & loss
On 14 November 1971, Ghazi again sailed into combat, with orders to proceed south from Karachi in West Pakistan, go north of the Maldives, south of Sri Lanka, and then turn sharply inland and hug the east Indian coastline all the way up to East Pakistan; mining and attacking Indian warships with the carrier INS Vikrant her prime target. Indian naval intelligence had intercepted a supply request for USN-grade submarine oil from a naval base in East Pakistan, so they were anticipating Ghazis patrol plan and probable path. To deceive Pakistani intelligence as to Vikrants whereabouts (actually at sea in the Bay of Bengal), the Vishakapatnam naval base continued to order rations as if Vikrants crew was in port, and the destroyer INS Rajput (home ported at Vishakapatnam) transmitted a huge volume of HF messages, as if she was the carrier.
The exact circumstances of what happened next are unclear. The official Indian navy account is that Rajput acquired a sonar contact near Vishakapatnam harbour at around 23:59 on 3 December 1971 and commenced a depth charge attack, with an explosion heard and an oil slick observed about twenty minutes later, approximately 00:15 on 4 December 1971.
However an Egyptian submarine officer in Vishakapatnam during the war recalls hearing two distinct explosions and only then seeing Rajput and another ship (either a minesweeper or salvage ship) leave port and sortie towards the area.
Sources.
PNS Ghazi:USS Sea Owl
PNS Ghazi 1971.