Pakistan Navy claims it 'blocked' Indian submarine entering waters

New Delhi: The Pakistan Navy on Tuesday claimed that it had allegedly “detected and blocked” an Indian submarine from entering Pakistani territorial waters last week. According to reports in the Pakistani media, that country’s military said in a statement that the incident had occurred on October 16 when an Indian submarine was detected by a Pakistan Navy patrol aircraft. The Pakistan Army also released a short footage of the purported incident to the media.

While there was no official statement by the Indian Navy, sources said the claims by the Pakistani military were incorrect. “If you will see the video released by the Pakistan military, it shows that the position of the submarine, or whatever it is, is around 250-260 km from Karachi port, which is in international waters. The territorial waters of a country is around 20-21 km”, a source said.

The Pakistani statement came as the Indian Navy’s top commanders are attending the Naval Commanders’ Conference from October 18 to 22 in New Delhi. This is being attended by the Indian Navy’s operational and area commanders and is discussing major maritime security threats.

In the past too, the Pakistan military has claimed that it had blocked Indian submarines from entering its territorial waters. The last such statement was made in March 2019, when Pakistan had released video footage saying it was that of an Indian submarine.

“Over the past several days, we have witnessed Pakistan indulging in false propaganda and spread of misinformation. The Indian Navy does not take cognisance of such propaganda,” the Navy had then said.