Soon after the Pulwama terror attack, India pulled out its Navy from an exercise and deployed a major part of its fleet, including nuclear and conventional submarines, close to Pakistani territorial waters.

New Delhi: Soon after the Pulwama terror attack, India pulled out its Navy from an exercise and deployed a major part of its fleet, including nuclear and conventional submarines, close to Pakistani territorial waters.

During the aggressive deployment of the naval assets by the Indian side, the Pakistanis were getting an impression that New Delhi might use its maritime force to avenge the killing of its 40 CRPF personnel in the suicide bombing by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

India was continuously keeping an eye on the movement of the Pakistani military but after Indian Air Force hit the Jaish terrorist factory in Balakot, one of the most advanced Pakistani Agosta-class submarines — PNS Saad— vanished from the Pakistani waters, a senior government source said.

Having accounted for all other surface warships and all the submarines, the vanishing act done by the PNS Saad fitted with Air Independent Propulsion (a technology which allows the submarines to stay for a longer period under the water than normal submarines) swung the entire Indian Navy into action.

“The location near Karachi from where the PNS Saad vanished, it could reach the Gujarat coast in three days and the headquarters of the western fleet in Mumbai within five days and was seen as a major threat to the security of the country,” the sources said.