ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Pakistan observed Navy Day on Tuesday with wreath-laying ceremonies, prayers for the fallen and a stream of messages from the country’s civil and provincial leadership, marking 61 years since the Pakistan Navy’s raid on the Indian coastal station at Dwarka on the night of 7-8 September 1965.
The principal ceremony was held at Naval Headquarters in Islamabad, where Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf laid a floral wreath at the Shuhada Monument. Fateha was offered for the martyrs of the force. The Naval Chief later met families of the martyrs, a fixture of the Navy Day calendar that the service has retained for decades.
Navy Day commemorates Operation Somnath, the codename for the bombardment of the radar and coastal installations at Dwarka in Indian Gujarat during the September 1965 war. A Pakistan Navy squadron closed on the target under cover of darkness and shelled shore installations before withdrawing without loss.
Naval histories record that the raiding force was built around the cruiser PNS Babur and included destroyers and frigates of the day, among them Khaibar, Badr, Jahangir, Alamgir, Shah Jahan and Tipu Sultan. Operating in support, the submarine PNS Ghazi held station off the Indian coast and functioned as a strategic deterrent, tying down enemy assets and raising the risk calculus for any counter-move. The raid remains one of the few surface bombardment actions of the post-war era in South Asia and is taught at Pakistan’s naval academies as a case study in surprise, timing and economy of force.
In his Navy Day message, President Asif Ali Zardari described the Dwarka operation as a reminder of the Navy’s “glorious past,” saying it demonstrated the bravery and tenacity of the force and helped lay the foundations of a maritime service driven by self-belief and a resolve to deter aggression.
The President said that during Marka-e-Haq in May 2025, the Navy safeguarded Pakistan’s maritime interests through operational readiness and forward deployments that kept a numerically superior Indian Navy at bay and denied it any opening to threaten Pakistan’s maritime security.
Turning to the present, President Zardari said the Navy had more recently demonstrated its commitment to national security through Operation Muhafiz-ul-Bahr, contributing to the protection of Pakistan’s energy security and economic lifelines by helping ensure the continuity of seaborne energy supplies — a reference of considerable weight at a moment when tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been squeezed by the conflict in the Middle East.
He said the induction of modern warships, the strategically significant Hangor-class submarines, jet aircraft, unmanned systems and indigenous long-range missiles reflected the service’s determination to remain a modern and capable force. The Navy, he added, was also engaged in maritime diplomacy through the multinational Exercise AMAN and the AMAN Dialogue, held under the banner “Together for Peace,” and continued to act as a first responder in national and regional emergencies.
“I have complete faith in Pakistan Navy that with its high standards of professionalism and technological edge, it will continue to protect our maritime interests with courage, honour and proficiency,” the President said.
Acting President Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a message issued through APP on Sunday, paid tribute to the officers and personnel of the Navy for their role in safeguarding Pakistan’s maritime frontiers, coastal security and national interests. He called Operation Somnath a defining example of the Navy’s strategy, courage and professional competence, saying it dealt a significant blow to the enemy’s defensive capabilities.
Mr Gilani said the Navy had grown into a modern and versatile maritime force, with responsibilities extending beyond territorial defence to maritime security, protection of sea trade routes, international peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance during natural disasters. He said that during Marka-e-Haq and Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos the force maintained vigilance along the country’s coastal and maritime frontiers. Pakistan, he said, remained a peace-loving country committed to regional stability, but there could be no compromise on sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif, in a special message, paid tribute to the officers and sailors who defend the country’s sea frontiers, and to the martyrs and ghazis of the force. She said the Navy had proved its superiority over the adversary on every occasion through its professional competence, and that the submarine Ghazi had written a remarkable chapter in naval warfare.
The Chief Minister said the Navy’s role extended beyond defence to the promotion and protection of maritime trade. She singled out for praise the service’s role in ensuring uninterrupted movement of Pakistani-flagged merchant vessels despite the tensions around the Strait of Hormuz — an issue with direct consequences for fuel imports arriving at Karachi and Port Qasim, and therefore for prices in Punjab’s markets.
Modern submarines, cruise and ballistic missiles and other contemporary naval assets, she said, had given the Pakistan Navy a distinguished standing internationally. She prayed that the force would continue to uphold its traditions in the service of the country’s defence, security and dignity.
Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Navy Day was an occasion to salute the courage, professional skill and sacrifices of the Navy’s personnel, calling 8 September 1965 a luminous chapter in the force’s history. He said the Dwarka operation had humbled the adversary’s pride and delivered a stinging response in the 1965 war. During Marka-e-Haq, he added, the Navy remained alert and combat-ready and the enemy could not summon the nerve to strike Karachi. The sacrifices of the Navy’s martyrs, he said, were a priceless national asset.
This year’s observance falls at a moment when the maritime domain is unusually crowded with risk. Global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which a large share of Pakistan’s imported crude and LNG travels — has thinned sharply since the outbreak of hostilities in the Gulf earlier this year, and freight and war-risk insurance costs have climbed. For a country that moves the overwhelming bulk of its trade by sea, the health of the sea lanes is not an abstraction; it is the difference between stable supply and shortages at the pump.
Beyond warfighting, the Navy’s remit now spans counter-piracy patrols, participation in combined maritime task forces, flood and earthquake relief, and the protection of the exclusive economic zone against illegal fishing. Navy Day, observed each 8 September, has become the annual occasion on which those roles are placed before the public.
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