Pakistan’s navy has set its sights on the Bay of Bengal for the first time since the 1971 war, with a senior Pakistani naval officer publicly stating that the country’s new Hangor-class submarines could be deployed in those waters — a development that has raised significant strategic concerns in New Delhi.
The disclosure came from Commodore Omar Farooqi, commander of the flotilla vessel escorting Pakistan’s newly acquired Hangor-class submarine from China. Speaking to media during a stopover in Sri Lanka, Farooqi stated: “With the Hangor-class submarines, our naval capability will extend beyond the Arabian Sea. These vessels give us the opportunity to project military power into the Bay of Bengal as well. These are game-changer submarines.”
Pakistan has signed an agreement with China to procure eight Hangor-class submarines, with the first unit recently delivered. The remaining vessels are expected to follow in the coming years.
The Bay of Bengal is international waters, bordered by India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. While no single nation holds territorial claim beyond the standard 12 nautical mile limit and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone, the region is of critical strategic importance to India. India’s Eastern Naval Command is headquartered at Visakhapatnam, which also serves as the base for the country’s nuclear submarine program and houses INS Varsha — the classified underground submarine base. The port city has previously seen arrests of Pakistani intelligence operatives, underlining the sensitivity of the region. Key communication lines and major trade routes to Bangladesh and Southeast Asia also pass through these waters.
Defense experts note that while Pakistan’s overall naval capability remains significantly inferior to India’s — which operates aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines — any Pakistani deployment in the Bay of Bengal would be a persistent strategic irritant that New Delhi cannot afford to ignore. Pakistan’s navy currently relies on Chinese-made Type 054A/P frigates and Turkish-built Milgem corvettes, and is unlikely to alter the balance of power in these waters even with the addition of the new submarines.
The timing of Pakistan’s Bay of Bengal ambitions coincides with a marked warming of ties between Islamabad and Dhaka. Relations between the two countries had been severed following the 1971 war. However, since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh in 2024, Pakistan has actively sought to rebuild the relationship. Direct flight services, increased bilateral trade, strengthened military cooperation, and the launch of the first-ever direct sea trade route between Karachi and Chattogram have all followed. Significantly, Pakistan’s warship PNS Saif was deployed off the Chattogram coast for four days in November last year — a development closely watched by Indian defense planners.
The Hangor-class submarine itself is a formidable platform. Developed by China and equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology, it can remain submerged for significantly longer periods than conventional diesel-electric submarines, making detection and tracking considerably more difficult. Pakistan is inducting a total of eight such vessels as part of its broader effort to expand naval reach well beyond the Arabian Sea.
The Hangor name carries particular historical weight for India. During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, Pakistan’s PNS Hangor sank India’s INS Khukri using a torpedo — the first warship India had lost since independence. The incident, however, did not alter the outcome of the war. India’s navy subsequently lured and destroyed Pakistan’s PNS Ghazi, and Pakistan surrendered within 13 days. Since that defeat, the Pakistani navy has maintained no presence in the Bay of Bengal. After more than five decades, it now appears Islamabad is looking to change that.