A newly declassified Indian navy investigation says that the only Indian naval vessel ever sunk by an enemy submarine was inadequately protected, and the Indian navy initiated an immediate cover-up. The Pakistani sub Hangor torpedoed the INS Khukri during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. An accompanying Indian ship fled instead of returning fire. But many involved received awards for gallantry rather than court martials for dereliction of duty.
… a Pakistani submarine torpedoed and sank the Khukri on the night of December 9, 1971. It is the single biggest wartime casualty of independent India. There was never a court of inquiry to find out if anyone was responsible for the ship going down.
… in their last moments some 250 officers and sailors of the Khukri were abandoned by INS Kirpan, an accompanying naval ship that should have carried out an immediate counterattack250 sailors were abandoned by an accompanying naval ship . It also reveals that the navy’s claim that it hunted and sank the Pakistani submarine a few hours later to be false. The Hangor returned to Karachi harbour safely…
“The Khukri, in company with another A/S (anti-submarine) ship Kirpan, was torpedoed and sunk without even an engagement with the enemy. Eighteen officers and 176 sailors perished with the Khukri. Both the COs deserved to be punished, but the higher authorities gave them gallantry awards. INS Khukri and INS Kirpan violated every principle of A/S doctrine for hunter killer operations…” [Link]
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p>If true, this revisionism may be linked to a military and civilian culture which gives greater weight to saving face than fixing problems.
… It also raises uncomfortable questions about numerous gallantry awards given out by the government to many involved in the incident. [Link]
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p>It reminds me of the Pat Tillman friendly fire cover-up by the U.S. Army Rangers:
… the military’s top commanders were covering up the truth to protect their image… Although “soldiers on the scene said they were immediately sure Tillman was killed by a barrage of American bullets,” according to the Post, and “a new Army report on the death shows that top Army officials, including the theater commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, were told that Tillman’s death was fratricide days before the service,” Army officials decided not to inform Tillman’s family or the public until weeks after the memorial…
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p>
“The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic,” Tillman’s mother, Mary, told the Post. “The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting..”The soldiers on the ground said they burned Tillman’s bullet-riddled uniform and body armor, the Post reported, because they considered them a biohazard, and because, as one said, “we knew at the time, based on taking the pictures and walking around it, it was a fratricide…” [Link]
There are also obvious parallels to the plot of Rang De Basanti.
Update: One survivor says the Khukri was not on alert:
Bhushan’s claim is corroborated by one of the survivors of INS Khukri. Chanchal Singh Gill, who had just joined the ship and had a miraculous escape because he was on duty at the time of attack, says the ship was not on Action Station mode.
“That caused the death of so many people,” he told DNA. “The sailors of Khukri were not even wearing life jackets, which is mandatory during Action Stations…” [Link]
The original investigator says the Khukri was not prepared to fight submarines:
“The Western Naval Command headquarters under the then Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Vice Admiral SN Kohli, gave permission to Khukri to mount a modification kit on its sonar… The modification kit would have imposed serious limitations on the anti-submarine capability of Khukri…” [Link]
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p>But he also lays blame on its accompanying ship, the Kirpan:
“In accordance with the normal practice, [the] Kirpan should have immediately carried out an emergency attack. A/S (anti-submarine) ships are fitted with versatile projectile launchers, capable of firing clusters of high explosive projectiles, which covered large area. Launchers could fire over wide arc even ahead at high speeds, under rapid alteration of courses… After the emergency attack Kirpan should have located the enemy submarine and carried out relentless deliberate attacks till the submarine was destroyed.”
The official history presented in the ‘Transition to Triumph’ says that after firing a few salvos at the submarine Kirpan’s “mortars went non-operational”. [Link]
except, of course, that the first example was running away from a hot “blue on red” engagement while the other was after the fact covering up a “blue on blue”. A lie was told but one was FAR FAR FAR worse than the other.
Iron[y] – Both vessels were named after traditional daggers used by two of India’s most valiant regiments, i.e., Gurkha [Khukri, Sikh [Kirpan]
wow. this is a fascinating story. i had an uncle in the indian navy, but never heard of this incident before. but then, this cover-up seems to have been initiated on a massive scale. it seems that these types of actions are usually engaged in at the height of any jingoist campaign. any leak of this news to the public would have been disastrous during the the indo-pak war. that said, the goverment’s move to obscure the truth certainly isn’t condonable. thanks for posting about this.
Nothing ironic. The new INS Khukri serves the Indian Navy admirably (IIRC was launched by the widow of one of those who served on the 1st INS Khukri). Cmdr Mulla went down with his ship as did his XO and 2nd officer while seeing off as many of the sailors as they could to safety.
doesn’t sound not-PC. Just sounds a little misleading. Veterans would tell you that every regimen is valiant.
Cmdr Mulla went down with his ship as did his XO and 2nd officer while seeing off as many of the sailors as they could to safety
Shiva,
Yes, Cmdr Mulla is hailed as a great hero.
I think the present news does not cast shadow over him.
After WWII, 1971 was the first unconditional surrender (even Israeli wars have ended in ceasfires) and military historians consider as ’71 as one of the most one-sided war in recent time. I am sorry to hear about the INS Khurki fiasco that is emerging.
No where did the Indian Navy claim to have sunk the Hangor. The Official History of the Indian Navy is available online on the Indian Navy website. The reporter is well advised to read it and come upwith the page number where they claimed so..
Coming to INS Kirpan
A more detailed assessment of the sinking of Khukri can be read at
http://indiannavy.nic.in/t2t2e/Trans2Trimph/chapters/10_1971%20wnc1.htm
The military of ANY countrry is corrupt (not just ours). Having said that this was a shameful act at the time and is a shameful act to read about now. Not shameful that the navy retreated – they do this like this in the heat of war – but that they lied to gain awards that were given them.
Now the point is that 1971 was a battle where we beat our enemies and split their country in half.
As far as I know from people in the military – people are corrupt from tip to toe and not just in India but everywhere. Really worrying if you think about it.
Its no big secret that the US military industrial complex is the most corrupt. Just think about Haliburton.
Shiva – I misspoke, apologies.
I couldn’t agree more. All regiments serving our country are valiant and deserving of our utmost respect.
JP I browsed through the link you posted, It appears o give the reason why kripan decided to move away. I dont really trust DNA. The article particularly seems flaky not giving background details etc. however to be sure a strong rebuttal is needed.
This is absolutely shocking to read this item about INS Khukri. I have decided to question one of my relative in the navy regarding this event.
BTW , also read about the recent event in which INS Prahar sank 35 km from the cost of goa after hitting a SCI ship !
Is this what is called as “blue water navy” ? we have naval officers dreaming of enforcing their authority from the arabian sea to the gulf of malaysia !
Can the posters, especially Bihari Babu behave with some more maturity and decorum please?
Why dont you people read as to what the Navy actually did and said instead of spilling sepia ink over made up bunkum? The link has been given above!
And shame on Manish for bringing in RDB and Pat Tillman without even examining the Navy’s stated view as given on its own website. If this was not shoddy reportage based on one speculative report, then I wonder what is.
i am really surprised at the comments from everyone who has been given a mouth by the ALMIGHTY TO SPEAK!! i myself am a serving officer in the Indian Navy.if u people do not know about things,please ask others before blogging whatever comes to your mind. specially this bihari babu character,what do u know about the armed forces? if your armed forces would have been corrupt,you wouldn’t have been sleeping inside your house fearlessly. you know how is it to stay inside a sinking ship when u know that u are going to die inevitably? and still captain m n mulla risked his life,saved as many of his juniors as he could and finally went down with his ship!! how many of us can lay our lives like this? regarding INS prahar’s sinking… again no one of u knows what happened.. and still u want to raise a finger towards the soldiers who don’t get any bribe… are really underpaid(go and find out the pay of a jawan, its even lesser than a peon in bihar government) i should not comment on this,i am bound by rules.. but u shud know that it was not the naval ship’s mistake.the merchant vessel was on auto-pilot.the personnel on duty were sleeping, and they didnot respond to continuous calls by the naval ship. the merchant vessel was supposed to get out of way as per rules.. i am not saying that the naval ship was not at mistake.the officer on duty shud have taken action when he found out that the merchant ship wasn’t taking action… the naval ship did take action, but very late. the guilty will of course be punished by the military law,and it is harsher than u know. just one request,please ask others before u write anything.the whole world reads it, and think of what they will assess when they find us indians only criticizing ourselves… lets have some self respect guys. hope u understand. thanks
A lot of “galley news” do flow and it is true that Khukri was not on action station. Instead, routine patrol was being carried out in the comfort that Pakis will have gone into the harbour. Such was the disaster that Admirals Nanda and Kohli reapd on the Indian Navy.
Lot of people fail to mention RAdm Kuruvilla and his Chief of Staff. Indeed after the first successful attack on Karachi harbour, both CNS and C-in-C Western Command wanted to send a second wave of attack on Karachi. As fleet commander, Kuruvilla sought access to intelligence reports on the last attack which were denied.
Disaster such as the sinking of Khukri struck because the chain of command did know of the internal bickering which assured them that Pakis have gone home!
it is sad to see that all of you assholes dont know your arse from your mouth when you start spitting out shit.. do some brainstorming on how you would feel looking down from siachen with your fingers in a polythene bag or how you feel when you are flying over kuttch and you pick up radar contacts or even when an enemy submarine decides to show itself to you briefly…. ever read the army recruitment ad… DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU????
If it wasn’t for the Indian Armed Forces, we all would have been Pakis by now. And politicians, beaurucrats, civil servants et al would have ensured it faster for a meagre sum. You need balls of steel to be part of a full fledged war and much more than that to save your juniors and go down with your ship. Sicklings sitting in their airconditioned offices blabbering over the armed forces are nothing but traitors of the country who need to be shot at the first given oppurtunity. The month of Dec 71 also saw so many supreme sacrifices, heroism and bravery in the Army, Navy and Air Force, lets talk about them and ensure that at least all Indians, if not the world, know of our courage and valiance and leave the finer points of tactics and when to get away and when not to, leave it for those who are capable of taking this decision, they have been, chosen, trained and sent their after being selected from the best of the best.
I was eight years old and wide awake late that night my heart thumping as my mother went to answer the ringing phone .It wasn’t about Dad… but the Khukri had been sunk! I still remember my mother coming back to bed crying with a mixture of releif and despair. We didnt lose immediate family but we had lost family ;a feeling that many would find difficult to understand given the dog eat dog mentality that now prevails.
Its great fun to discuss culpability for the sinking of a ship 35 years after the event with the infinite wisdom of hind sight ofcourse. Uncharitable as they might like to be to the young families that lost precious members to the war , the armchair pansies who write this crap should wait to fight their own wars first before passing wise judgement on helpless old or long deceased heroes of yesteryear.
My Dad and the many “uncles” in the Naval family (most of whom were known to us children by first name) were heroes . If a nation that once sung their praises thinks other wise ….so be it!
Well let me introduce myself first. I am in the Indian navy serving as a full fledged lieutenant onboard warships. Let me put one thing straight. We have to learn from our mistakes. Lets not start blaming who is wrong, who is right or who is corrupt. Lets instead see as how to solve a problem. There are enough problems as such. We have to draw lessons and ensure such a misfortune does not occur in the future.
And such a situation shall arise when u people show faith in us. Agreed there is no war now. Agreed the economy is bouyant. But remember IF U WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE U HAVE TO PREPARE FOR WAR.
I have to admit one thing being an Officer. The lives of the sailors under me squarely rest upon me. If my sailors die i am wholly and hundred percent responsible for it. Let the entire world say i am not to be blamed for their lives, but when i go to sleep these memories haunt me. Thats the way we are trained in our National Defence Academy. We have to lead. We have to take resposibility. I safely presume these thoughts might have gone through Capt Mulla as he decided to go with the ship. And every person who has a self respect will do the same.
Jai Hind.
MARIA! The gorgeous Fort Convent lass? Wow! My young teenage Campionite heart went a thumpin everytime i saw u.. I am letting u into a little secret of 30 long yrs ago.The Golf Course adventures,the friday movie at the US Club, the the naval family ,all a faded dream now.
Our Dads kicked ass real good in 1972 with raw guts and the little they had as weaponry.I just dont understand how an introspection 35 years later will help the Navy of today learn from its “mistakes” given that all the parameters have changed.
theres been such a great input from different angles but the fact remains the same .its better to learn from our mistakes and perform well in the future …… am a person who has lost my uncle in this event (sinking of khukri) being trained in various warships of our navy i being an ex NCC Sr Cdt.Cpt understand that it takes lot of self determination ,courage and sacrificial mind to kiss the abyss and alow the juniors to live thier life. Lets focus on our strength and be the global winner…