Pakistan said its navy “detected and blocked” an Indian submarine as it approached its territory in the Arabian Sea on Monday night. Officials released aerial video footage which they said showed the submarine breaking the surface of water with a timestamp of 8.35pm on Monday. Pakistan’s Navy Director General of Public Relations said the submarine could have been “easily engaged and destroyed had it not been Pakistan’s policy to exercise restraint in the face of Indian aggression and to give peace a chance to prevail”.
The statement described the incident as the latest in a “series of proactive actions against Pakistan”.
But India responded by dismissing the claims as a false narrative being put out by Islamabad.
Indian government sources disputed the video’s authenticity and said their submarine would not have surfaced had it been trying to enter Pakistani waters.
The sources said it was part of a wider propaganda campaign by Pakistan to create hysteria.
The latest clash comes as tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad remain high following the Indian Air Force airstrike in Pakistan that took out Jaish-e-Mohammad’s largest terrorist camp.
Tensions boiled over when Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in a suicide bombing in the disputed Kashmir region last month.
The bomb attack led to the most serious conflict in years between the nuclear-armed neighbours with cross-border air strikes and a brief dogfight over the skies of Kashmir.
Pakistan returned a downed Indian pilot on Friday as a “gesture of peace”.
Pakistan has long used some Islamist groups to pursue its aims in the region but denies Indian accusations it actively supports militants fighting Indian forces in India’s part of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Britain has urged Pakistan to deal with militant groups and “address the causes of this conflict” with India.
Pakistan and India have gone to war three times, twice over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both rule in part.
India controls most of the region, including the populous Kashmir Valley.
Pakistan says Kashmir was unfairly made part of India when British India was partitioned at the end of colonial rule, and the people of Kashmir should be allowed to decide if they want to join Pakistan or remain part of India. India has ruled out such a move.