During the Indo Pak war of 1971, Indian Navy named its most daring and awe inspiring operation as operation Trident. It was of course symbolic of Trishul the invincible three pronged weapon of shiva the Great God. When the war of 1971 was looking large on the horizon, Indian Navy was headed by Admiral SM Nanda the then chief of the Naval staff. Vice Admiral N Krishnan and vice admiral later admiral SN kohli were.learding the eastern was western commands respectively. They meticulously planned the naval response in the emerging scenario. In the event of war was the western Navel command based at Mumbai was to engage and destroy as many Pakistani naval ships as possible so that the Pakistani Navy became incapable of attacking our shipping and launching attack on Indian soil from the sea. It was during this time that the plan to attack Karachi was fine tuned and operation Trident was conceived. By the time the bugle of war was sounded on the evening of 3 December 1971 the Indian Navy had already deployed it's western fleet in the North Arabian sea. A special Task Group comprising two Letha class Corvettes and four Missile Boats intended to launch an urgent missile attack was awaiting orders off the coast of saurashtra. The plan of operation was clear and simple though risky. The special Task Group was to approach Karachi during the night launch missiles from a distance of about 20 nautical miles and withdraw before dawn to avoid Pakistani Air Force attack. The plan provided that the Group after reaching 159 miles from Karachi at sunset would go at maximum speed during night to carry out attack and withdraw again at a maximum speed. Invisiblity in the night was to be exploited as best as possible. As per the plan, on the Moonless night of 3 December three missile boats, Nirghat Nipat and veer and the two Letha class ships katchall and Iran proceeded towards Karachi Lt CDR later code Sharma commanding officer INS Nirghat.
Vanshi
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