PNS ''Muhafiz'' was an ''Adjutant''-class minesweeper of the

Pakistan Navy ur, ہمارے لیے اللّٰہ کافی ہے اور وہ بہترین کارساز ہے۔ English language, English: Allah is Sufficient for us - and what an excellent (reliable) Trustee (of affairs) is He!(''Quran, Qur'an, Al Imran, 3:173' ...

. It was built by the United States for transfer to Pakistan. PNS ''Muhafiz'' was sunk by a missile from of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

during the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...

. PNS ''Zulfiqar'' (K265) of Pakistan was also damaged beyond repair by friendly fire from aircraft of the

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

(PAF) which mistook her for a missile boat of the

during the same war. India also lost in this war.

Operation Trident

During the

, The minesweeper PNS ''Muhafiz'' was tasked to patrol the approaches to port of Karachi. To do so it was deployed on the inner cordon. Late that evening on 4 December 1971, around 70 miles south of Karachi, the detected a large

target, later identified as the ''Muhafiz'' on patrol to its north. ''Veer'' launched a single

SS-N-2 The P-15 ''Termit'' (russian: П-15 "Термит"; en, termite) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N-2. Chin ...

''Styx'' missile on the target, sinking ''Muhafiz''. It was later learned that at 23:30 the ''Muhafiz'' was hit by Styx missiles, and sank in the Indian Ocean at about 23:35. Other vessels of the

strike group sank the Pakistan Navy

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

, and the merchant ship (carrying navy personnel and ammunition for Pakistan), and caused irreparable damage to the destroyer .

References

External links

PNS Muhafiz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhafiz 1954 ships Ships built in Bellingham, Washington Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 Minesweepers of the Pakistan Navy Maritime incidents in 1971 Shipwrecks in the Arabian Sea

Operation Trident

See also

References

External links