New Delhi: Amid increasing tensions at the Line of Control, prominent Pakistani journalist Moeed Pirzada Tuesday tweeted a video of a Pakistan Navy ship with a false suggestion that it intercepted and rammed into an Indian Navy vessel in the Arabian Sea.
The video shared by Pirzada, known to be close to the Pakistani military establishment, has got over 50,000 views on the microblogging site.
Pakistan Navy intercepts and rams Indian ship in Arabian Sea? pic.twitter.com/nkNHnV7aw2
— Moeed Pirzada (@MoeedNj) April 13, 2020
The Pakistani journalist’s video actually refers to an incident from 2011. Also, it was shot from the Indian Navy’s INS Godavari, a guided missile frigate that was the first Indian warship to be indigenously designed and built in the 1980s.
The video shows Pakistan Navy ship Babar (D-182) brushing against the Indian vessel and causing damage to the helicopter nets. The Pakistani vessel was decommissioned in 2015.
While Pakistan had blamed the Indian ship for putting its crew in danger, the video shows it was the PNS Babar’s mistake that caused the incident. PNS Babar was commanded by Captain Azhar Naeem, who had served in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, earlier.
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Diplomatic row in 2011
A huge diplomatic row broke out between India and Pakistan after the 2011 incident, which took place after both the ships were sent to the Gulf of Aden region in the wake of increased piracy.
PNS Babur was escorting Egyptian merchant vessel MV Suez, which had been released several months after being held hostage by Somali pirates. The sailors on board included Indians.
The Indian ship was sent to reassure sailors on board the merchant vessel and those taken hostage by the pirates.
After the standoff between India and Pakistani Naval ships, then defence minister A.K. Antony had informed Parliament in August 2011 about the incident.
“While carrying out anti-piracy patrol, INS Godavari on coming close to MV Suez, which had earlier been hijacked, tried to establish communication to ascertain safety of crew,” the minister had said.
“…PNS Babur closed INS Godavari at high speed from astern and carried out a manoeuvre in gross violation of relevant regulations on navigational safety and in the process touched Godavari, thereby marginally damaging the extended safety net on the helicopter deck,” Antony added.
The then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma had said a protest was lodged with Pakistan over this. The Ministry of Defence later summoned the naval adviser of the Pakistan High Commission and conveyed India’s concerns to him.
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