Pakistan on Wednesday summoned India’s Charge d’Affaires and lodged a protest over a collision involving a Pakistani Navy vessel and a frontline warship of the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea, reported news agency PTI.
The development comes hours after India summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission, Saad Warraich, in Delhi and lodged a strong protest over the "unacceptable conduct" by the Pakistan Navy vessel that led to the collision.
According to the PTI, report, in a statement, the Foreign Office said it summoned the Indian Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad and lodged a “strong protest” over what it claimed as a “highly provocative and unacceptable” action by an Indian Navy vessel in Pakistan’s Exclusive Economic Zone on September 15.
“While the Pakistan Navy was undertaking its biennial exercise SEASPARK-26, the Indian vessel carried out aggressive manoeuvres in dangerously close proximity of Pakistani naval ship, resulting in contact between the two vessels,” it said, the report added.
It said the incident constituted a "serious violation" of international law as well as the 1991 bilateral agreement on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troop Movements, and risked escalating tensions in the region.
“The Charge d’Affaires was asked to convey to the government of India that Pakistan strongly rejects this belligerent Indian action,” the FO said.
The Indian side was urged to adhere strictly to international law and bilateral agreements, particularly those aimed at preventing incidents at sea, it added.
On the evening of September 15, Pakistani Navy vessel Hunain closed in on a frontline Indian Navy warship that was on a routine surveillance mission in the north Arabian Sea at high speed, official sources in New Delhi said.
The Pakistani vessel manoeuvred in an unprofessional and unsafe manner, and this led to a collision, they said.
Hunain, an offshore patrol vessel, suffered heavy damage in the incident, the sources said.
The Indian warship continued on its assigned task under mission deployment in the region, the sources said, adding that the warship did not suffer any significant damage.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the incident took place in international waters and did not cause any major damage, but the "conduct of the Pakistani naval ship was in direct contravention of Article 10 of the 1991 agreement between India and Pakistan on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troops Movements of April 1991".
The incident is the first publicly known incident involving the two countries in the military domain since the four-day military hostilities in May 2025 in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.
(With inputs from PTI)
