On the night of 4-5 December 1971, three Indian missile boats struck Karachi, sinking PNS Khaibar and PNS Muhafiz without Indian loss.
The 25th Squadron goes to sea
On the night of 4-5 December 1971, three Indian missile boats attacked Pakistani ships off Karachi with Styx missiles. Pakistan had opened the war on the evening of 3 December, too late for the force to reach its start point that night, and the operation was set for the next day.
The boats, Soviet-built Osa I craft, had been commissioned at Kolkata earlier in 1971. They were INS Nipat, under Lieutenant Commander B.N. Kavina, INS Nirghat, under Lieutenant Commander I.J. Sharma, and INS Veer, under Lieutenant Commander O.P. Mehta.
Commander Babru Bhan Yadav, commanding the 25th Missile Boat Squadron, embarked in Nipat. The escorts were INS Kiltan and INS Katchall, with the fleet tanker INS Poshak.
Khaibar, Venus Challenger and Muhafiz
At about 2230 Pakistan time, some 70 nautical miles south of Karachi, the boats detected targets to the north-west and north-east.
Nirghat fired at about 2240 on the destroyer PNS Khaibar, which turned to intercept. Two missiles hit, and she sank about 45 minutes later.
Nipat fired two missiles at a contact later identified as the merchant ship MV Venus Challenger. Some accounts place the destroyer PNS Shah Jahan in the same engagement. Veer's single missile set the coastal minesweeper PNS Muhafiz on fire, and she also sank.
Nipat then fired at the oil installations at Karachi at about midnight. Accounts differ on how much of the damage at Keamari came from this missile, from the second naval attack of 8-9 December, or from Indian Air Force raids.
The return to Bombay
A communications fade meant the task group commander in Kiltan did not receive Yadav's withdrawal order. He closed to 20 miles from Karachi before finding the boats had turned back. Veer slowed for repairs on the way.
The Indian force suffered no casualties or damage. Its ships refuelled on the Saurashtra coast on 5 December and reached Bombay on 6 December.
Yadav received the Maha Vir Chakra. The Navy has since marked 4 December as Navy Day.