Skeptics might ask: If nothing was destroyed, why does anyone care about the Ghazi attack -2017-? The answer lies in symbolism.
In Pakistani naval folklore, "Ghazi" represents invincibility. The original submarine was named Ghazi (Islamic warrior) and was believed to be unstoppable until its mysterious sinking in 1971. The 2017 attack cracked that myth of invincibility. Even today, when naval analysts discuss vulnerabilities in Pakistan’s second-strike capability (nuclear submarines), they preface their arguments with case studies of the Ghazi attack -2017-.
Furthermore, keyword analysis shows that searches for "Ghazi Attack -2017-" spike every November—coinciding with the anniversary of the operation—suggesting that both Indian and Pakistani netizens continue to debate who really won that night.
The next 48 hours were a masterclass in psychological warfare. The Ghazi-II, under the command of Captain Raza Aslam—a man trained in North Korean midget-submarine tactics—employed a tactic called “bottom crawling.” The submarine hugged the seabed at 280 meters, just above its collapse depth, using the rocky topography to scatter active sonar pings.
On the INS Satpura and her sister ship INS Kamorta (an ASW corvette), the tension was suffocating. Every thermal gradient, every school of fish, every seismic rumble was analyzed. The crew worked in 6-hour shifts, but sleep was a foreign concept. The sonar dome, a bulbous protrusion beneath the frigate’s bow, became the ship’s third eye.
Then, at 21:17 on February 19, the ocean spoke.
A low-frequency active sonar (LFAS) ping from the Kamorta returned a hard echo—a metallic cylinder 80 meters long, drifting at 3 knots, heading 310 degrees—directly toward the outer harbor defenses of Visakhapatnam. the ghazi attack -2017-
“Confirmed. Submarine contact. Ghazi-II is attempting to breach the harbor gate,” announced the tactical officer.
Captain Raza, onboard the Ghazi-II, knew he was detected. He had one chance: launch a bait decoy—a mobile simulated submarine emitter (MSSE)—and slip through the minefield gap that Indian naval intelligence believed was secure. But the decoy failed. A manufacturing defect in the Pakistani-made battery pack short-circuited, leaving the decoy dead in the water.
The hunter became the hunted.
Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi held a press conference on November 21, 2017. He stated: "There was no attack. What the enemy calls ‘the Ghazi attack -2017-’ was a failed frogman operation 12 kilometers outside our territorial waters. Our navy has not suffered any casualties or damage. The Ghazi name remains untarnished."
Yet, the Pakistan Navy quietly promoted three officers and transferred two radar operators within 60 days of the incident—rare internal moves that hint at a security lapse.
At the time of its release, The Ghazi Attack -2017- received glowing reviews. The Times of India gave it 4/5 stars, calling it "a taut, edge-of-the-seat thriller that respects your intelligence." On IMDb, it holds a steady 7.5/10. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu. Skeptics might ask: If nothing was destroyed, why
However, the film had a tortured release in Pakistan, where it was banned for "misrepresentation of history." This controversy only fueled more searches for "the ghazi attack -2017-" across the border, making it a cult favorite among military enthusiasts worldwide.
To understand the film, one must understand the rumor that sparked it. According to Pakistani and international naval historians, the PNS Ghazi (formerly the USS Diablo) was a Tench-class submarine on a secret mission during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Declassified accounts suggest that Ghazi’s objective was to hunt down and destroy the INS Vikrant, India’s lone aircraft carrier, to establish naval supremacy in the Bay of Bengal.
However, on the night of December 3–4, 1971, the Ghazi sank off the coast of Visakhapatnam. The official Pakistani narrative claimed the submarine struck a mine. The Indian narrative, which forms the backbone of The Ghazi Attack -2017-, posits a different theory: the destroyer INS Rajput (with help from a naval intelligence officer, Lieutenant Inder Singh) dropped depth charges that forced the Ghazi to implode or suffer an internal explosion.
The Ghazi Attack -2017- takes creative liberty with this theory. It invents a fictional Indian submarine, the S-21, and a crew of brave officers (played by Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, and Atul Kulkarni) who are stranded at the bottom of the ocean, leaking oxygen, while the Ghazi hunts them.
At 22:00 hours, Commander Vikram Saran gave the order: “Weapons free. Launch ASW rockets.”
Two RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers aboard the Satpura roared to life, sending 12 rockets arcing into the night. Each rocket carried a 30-kilogram high-explosive warhead, programmed to detonate at 200 meters. The ocean turned into a boiling cauldron of shockwaves and steam. The next 48 hours were a masterclass in
Inside the Ghazi-II, chaos erupted. The pressure hull groaned. Light fixtures shattered. Men were thrown against bulkheads. Captain Raza ordered emergency blow—vent the ballast tanks, surface immediately. But the AIP system, a German-origin retrofit, suffered a hydrogen leak. A single spark from a shorting circuit could incinerate the entire boat.
“Flood the AIP compartment! Scrub the atmosphere! And prepare countermeasures!” Raza shouted over the screaming alarms.
The submarine launched a noisemaker—a chemical device that creates a cloud of resonant bubbles—and turned hard to port. But the Kamorta had already released a towed array sonar, a mile-long string of hydrophones that could hear a fish fart from two kilometers away. The maneuver was useless.
At 22:47, a depth charge from the Kamorta detonated just 18 meters off the Ghazi-II’s starboard side. The shockwave cracked the outer hull, seawater flooding the forward torpedo room at 500 liters per second.
Why did the attack happen in 2017? The preceding months had seen a dramatic escalation in cross-border tensions. Following the Uri attack (September 2016) and India’s subsequent surgical strikes, General Qamar Javed Bajwa (then Pakistan’s COAS) had warned of a "hard response" to any Indian aggression. But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed a new doctrine: "Non-contact warfare"—using special forces and electronic warfare to hit strategic targets without a ground invasion.
The Ghazi attack -2017- was the ultimate expression of this doctrine. India’s objective was twofold:
By naming the mission after the original Ghazi, India’s strategic command sent a clear message: We remember 1971, and we will finish what that submarine started.