india

Updated: Sep 29, 2019 01:50 IST

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday commissioned India’s second Scorpene-class attack submarine, INS Khanderi, by sounding a warning to Pakistan amid heightened tensions in the subcontinent over Kashmir.

Singh said at the induction ceremony that the role played by the navy in the 1971 war with Pakistan, which created Bangladesh, could not be forgotten.

“Pakistan should understand that today with the government’s strong resolve and advancement in naval capacity with additions like INS Khanderi, India is capable of giving a much bigger blow to it,” Singh said.

Tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan since India moved on August 5 to nullify Article 370 of the Constitution that conferred special status on Jammu and Kashmir and decided to bifurcate the state into two Union territories -- J&K and Ladakh. Pakistan Prime Minister has warned several times, most recently at the UN General Assembly on Friday, that the tensions could escalate into a nuclear war.

“We believe in peaceful and mutually beneficial coexistence with our neighbours,” Singh said.

He hit out at Khan for his speech at the General Assembly. Singh said India’s progressive steps in Jammu and Kashmir were receiving global support while the Pakistan prime minister was running from door to door without success.

INS Khanderi,a diesel-electric attack submarine, with superior stealth and several major combat capabilities, has been built by state-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in collaboration with the French submarine builder Naval Group.

“In the last five years, we have spent 70% of the navy budget on indigenous shipbuilding,” chief of naval staff Admiral Karambir Singh said, and also recalled the role played by the Navy in the 1971 war. INS Khanderi will be “serving the nation for maintaining peace,” he said.