Indian vessels, consisting of a missile boat and two frigates, approached Karachi and launched a missile attack that sank the Panamanian cargo ship Gulf Star, PNS Dacca and the British merchant ship SS Harmattan were damaged. The missile-based attacks were the complete success for the Indian Navy, and a psychological trauma for Pakistan Navy, the human and material cost severely cutting into its combat capability, nearly 1,700 sailors perished at the barracks. The commercial pilots from the Pakistan International Airlines volunteered to conduct air surveillance missions with the Pakistan Air Force, but this proved less than helpful when the Pakistan Navy's forward observer team, led by Cdre. A. W. Bhombal misidentified their own larger frigate, , as an Indian missile boat, giving clearance to the F-86 fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force which made several attack runs before finally identifying Zulfiqar by the Navy NHQ. This serious friendly fire incident resulted in further loss of navy personnel, as well as the loss of the ship, which was severely damaged and the Pakistan Navy's operational capabilities were now virtually extinct, and morale plummeted. The Indian Navy observers who watched the raid nearby later wrote in their war logs that the "PAF pilots failed to recognize the difference between a large PNS Zulfiqar frigate and a relatively small Osa missile boat." The PAF, however, contested this claim by holding Cdre. Bhombal of the responsibility of misidentifying his own warship and giving clearance to the PAF to mount an attack on their own ship. The Navy's only long range submarine, Ghazi, was deployed to the area but, according to neutral sources, it sank en route under mysterious circumstances. Pakistani authorities state that it sank either due to internal explosion or detonation of mines which it was laying at the time. The Indian Navy claims to have sunk the submarine. The submarine's destruction enabled the Indian Navy to enforce a blockade on then East Pakistan. According to the defence magazine, Pakistan Defence Journal, the attack on Karachi, Dhaka, Chittagong and the loss of Ghazi, the Navy no longer was able to match the threat of Indian Navy as it was already outclassed by the Indian Navy after the 1965 war. The damage inflicted by the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force on the Navy stood at seven gunboats, one minesweeper, two destroyers, three patrol craft, eighteen cargo, supply and communication vessels, and large-scale