From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

INS Khukri was a Type 14 ASW frigate in service of the Indian Navy. It was sunk by a Pakistan Navy new French Daphne class submarine PNS Hangor at 2000hrs on 8 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, off the coast of Diu, Gujarat, India. This was one of two sinkings by submarine since World War II (the other, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British HMS Conqueror in the 1982 Falklands War), and remains India's biggest wartime casualty.

After commencement of hostilities on 3rd December 1971, Indian Naval radio detection equipment identified a submarine lurking in the vicinity of Diu harbour about 35 miles south-west of the port of Diu.

The 14 Squadron of the Western Fleet, Khukri along with sister ships, Kirpan and Kuthar (all named after types of dagger), were dispatched on a Hunter-Killer mission to destroy the submarine. There exists some controversy as to why these old ships were sent on the mission instead of newer boats, because the sonar range of these boats was half of that of the newer submarine^{[citation needed]}. One reason that may have prompted the decision was that the Indian Navy lacked sufficient numbers of airborne anti submarine planes, led the deployment of the two obsolete Blackwood class frigates.[1]

Khukri was the slowest of the ships because she was testing an improved version of its 170/174 sonar, which required a slow speed to increase detection. This was to be its undoing.

The submarine sighted the Squadron on the evening of 8th December. It fired two homing torpedoes on a sonar approach (it being night), one of which missed Kirpan at 19:57Hrs. The second torpedo directed to Khukri struck under its magazine, and the ship sank within two minutes, according to the Pakistani submarine captain, Commander (later Vice Admiral) Ahmed Tasnim. [2]

Over 18 officers and 176 sailors were lost in the sinking. The captain, Mahendra Nath Mulla, opted to go down with the sinking ship. He was reported to be in a saluting gesture while sinking down with Khukri. He was posthumously awarded India's second-highest military honour, the Maha Vir Chakra.

A memorial to the dead sailors exists at Diu. The memorial constitutes a full-scale model of INS Khukri encased in a glass house, placed atop a hillock facing the sea. The memorial had been inaugurated by Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh in his capacity as the flag officer commanding-in-chief, WNC. ^[1]

The exact location of this memorial, at 20°42′10″N, 70°58′37″E can be seen in Google Earth.

• Mankekar, D.R. Twenty-Two Fateful Days: Pakistan Cut to Size., New Delhi:Indian Book Co., 1972.
• Roy, Vice Admiral Mihir K. (Retd.), War in the Indian Ocean, Lancer International,1995.

• Bharat Rakshak's excellent article on the incident