Operation Python - Operation Python

Operation Python

On the night of 8 December 1971, in rough seas, a small strike group consisting of missile boat INS Vinash and two multipurpose frigates, INS Talwar and INS Trishul, approached Karachi. INS Vinash fired four SS-N-2B Styx missiles. The first missile struck the fuel tanks at the Keamari Oil Farm. Another missile hit and sank a Panamian fuel tanker the SS Gulf Star. The third and fourth missiles hit the Pakistani Navy fleet tanker PNS Dacca and the British ship SS Harmattan.The Tanker PNS Dacca was damaged beyond repair while the Merchant Vessel SS Harmattan sank. One Pakistani ship was captured off the Makran coast.

Between Operations Trident and Python, and the Indian Air Force attacks on Karachi's fuel and ammunition depots, more than 50 percent of the total fuel requirement of the Karachi zone was reported to have been blown up. The result was a crippling economic blow to Pakistan. The damage was estimated at worth $3 billion, with most of the oil reserves and ammunition, warehouses and workshops had been destroyed and PAF was also hit.

Python was another successful operation by the Indian Navy. The Pakistani fuel reserves for the sector were destroyed and the flames could be seen even from miles away. India had established complete control over the oil route from the Persian Gulf to Pakistani ports. Shipping traffic to and from Karachi, Pakistan's only major port at that time, ceased. The Pakistani Navy's main ships were either destroyed or forced to remain in port. A partial naval blockade was imposed by the Indian Navy on the port of Karachi.