Dicommisioned INS Khukri will station at Diu

INS Khukri, lead ship of the Indian Navy’s Khukri class corvettes and an indigenous surface-to-surface missile fitted vessel that had the distinction of being part of both, the Western and Eastern Fleets, is scheduled to be handed over to the Diu Administration on 26 January 2022. Built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, the ship was commissioned on 23 August 1989 in Mumbai by Shri Krishna Chandra Pant, the then Hon’ble Raksha Mantri and Mrs. Sudha Mulla, wife of late Capt Mahendra Nath Mulla, MVC. After more than 32 glorious years of service to the nation and having participated in all forms of naval operations, the ship was decommissioned in a solemn ceremony on 23 December 2021 when the national flag, naval ensign and decommissioning pennant were lowered at sunset in the presence of Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, AVSM, YSM, VSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command. A ship never dies, it is said. She is re-born in a new avatar. In fact, the decommissioned vessel is the second ship of the Navy to carry the name INS Khukri, the first having been lost during the 1971 Indo-Pak War off the coast of Diu. The valiant crew of that ship, led by late Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla (MVC), has been immortalized in the Khukri Memorial at Diu where a scaled-down model of their old ship is displayed in solemn splendour.