Pakistan says Indian submarine spotted in its waters; experts punch holes in claim

Countering the Pakistan claim, sources said any professional navy would conduct combat patrols in enemy territorial waters fully-submerged.

Pakistan on Tuesday made stunning allegations against India and accused the Indian Navy of trespassing into its territorial waters on October 16.

The Inter-Services Public Relations said the Pakistan Navy showed its "professional competence" in blocking the Indian submarine's entry into Pakistani waters. The ISPR also claimed that this was the third time that an Indian submarine had been spotted and tracked by its long-range maritime patrol aircraft. Pakistan also claimed that the incident had exposed India's schemes against the country.

Pakistani media houses and ministers tom-tommed the incident with some even citing the UN Convention on Law of Sea which prohibits a country from carrying out manoeuvres in the exclusive economic zone of another country without its approval. Even Pakistani social media handles went on an overdrive. 

However, sources in the Indian government and naval establishment were quick to dismiss the claims. According to sources, the video is part of the usual propaganda tactics that Pakistan is notorious for. Countering the Pakistan claim, sources said any professional navy would conduct combat patrols in enemy territorial waters fully submerged.

And rightly so. Pakistan has on earlier two occasions pawned off submarine footage from 2016 and used it again in 2019 to claim an incursion into its territorial waters. On both occasions, New Delhi had called Islamabad's bluff and termed the claims as fake.

Captain DK Sharma, the former spokesperson of the Indian Navy, took to micro-blogging site Twitter to punch holes into Pakistan's claim. Citing coordinates, he wondered since when have submarines operating in international waters 200NM from Makran coast been blocked and how. He also went on to say that any submarine in the Arabian Sea does not necessarily mean that it is an Indian submarine.

Naval experts have been of the view that no submarine commanding officer will ever, under any circumstances, be at periscope depth during the day close to an adversary's waters. They said that even if the submarine is facing an emergency situation, being at periscope depth would be absolutely the last resort. No submarine commander will transit international waters at periscope depth, they added.