had failed to hit hard. As Kirpan fled the battle, Khukri, to its south, knowing the direction from which the torpedo had come, increased speed and came straight for an attack on Hangor. As Khukri came in for an attack, Hangors attack team shifted targeting to Khukri, quickly firing a second torpedo. The second torpedo was fired at the approaching Khukri and was followed by a heavy and loud explosion as the torpedo struck the magazine of Khukri. Shortly before the impact, Hangor detected the direct orders of Captain Mulla ordering evasive manoeuvres. INS Kirpan moved into the scene, hoping to engage Hangor with a hasty dropping of the depth charge, but a third torpedo locked onto Kirpans tail, followed by a loud explosion. Kirpan was not sunk but there was a substantial amount of physical damage that led Kirpan to flee the battle scene by turning west towards deep waters. Hangor moved into searching for survivors in a hope to rescue but Khukri sank in matter of two minutes before Hangor could reach it. The casualty roster listed 18 officers and 176 sailors aboard Khukri and it remains as the Indian Navy's most costly wartime casualty in terms of lives lost. Kirpan returned to the scene next day to execute the rescue operation along with INS Katchal but left without success. After this incident, there was a massive search and destroy mission led by the Western Fleet, indiscriminately dropping depth charges hoping to sink Hangor. Cdr. Tasnim had Hangor submerged for almost a week, returning to its base with depleted lead batteries during the night of 13 December 1971. According to his personal admission in 2001, Tasnim maintained: "An extensive air search combined with surface ships made our life miserable but with the intelligent evasive action we managed to survive these attacks and arrived in Karachi safely after the ceasefire." Legacy Decommissioning and preservation Over the successive years, it served in the Navy with distinction until decommissioning in 2006. In a ceremony on 2 January 2006, Hangor was decommissioned from the Pakistan Navy; it was soon converted to serve as a museum ship at Pakistan Maritime Museum. In its memory, Pakistan remembers and celebrates 9 December as Hangor Day. Honors and awards In recognition of her service, Hangor was decorated with multiple gallantry and wartime awards and honors. She is regarded in the Navy as having the highest number