She was officially laid down on 24 July 2007 and was launched on 7 April 2008 to complete several sea trials in China.[8] She is the lead ship of her class and was acquired by the Pakistan Navy on 30 July 2009.[1] On 12 September 2009, she arrived and reported to her base, Naval Base Karachi and commissioned in the Navy.[9][10]
The induction ceremony was held on 19 September 2009 with former Chairman joint chiefs General Tariq Majid visiting the ship and presented her with military colors.[2] The warship was later visited by General Ashfaq Pervez, the army chief and Admiral Noman Bashir who went to visit senior American officer, possibly Adm. Mike Mullen, abroad on the American aircraft carrier.[11]
On 6 September 2014, a serious incident took place involving Zulfiquar when al-Qaeda's Indian subcontinent branch attempted to take control of the vessel after penetrating the Naval Base Karachi. The Navy Special Service Group's Navy SEAL Teams and 1st Marines responded by engaging the attackers and succeeded in capturing four assailants alive who were locked away in the ship's compartment.[13] The motive appeared to be that the attackers, still on active duty with the Navy, wanted to engage the U.S. Navy's fleet in the Indian Ocean with its cruise and anti-ship missile system.[14]
Several Western sources reported that 11 people were killed following a gunfight and a suicide attack: 10 attackers—four on the Zulfiquar, including the organizers of the attack (Lieutenant Zeeshan Rafiq and Owais Jakhrani, a former lieutenant), and six more dressed as marines who attempted to infiltrate the ship via a nearby dinghy—and one petty officer.[15][16][17]
On 13 September 2014, the Navy confirmed that it had detained 17 naval personnel including three key naval officers who were trying to flee to Afghanistan through Mastung in Balochistan in Pakistan.[13] On 25 March 2016, the Navy JAG Corps announced that five naval officers had been sentenced to death for their involvement in the attack.[16][18]
Unnamed officials told Steve Coll that India's Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) has evidence indicating that, unbeknownst to the attackers, the Zulfiquar was carrying a nuclear warhead during the incident. However, this intelligence reporting is uncorroborated and notably inconsistent with public information regarding Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, its delivery systems, and its methods of handling nuclear materials.[17][19]
^Sherazi, Zahir Shah; Shah, S. Ali (11 September 2014). "Navy officials arrested in connection with dockyard attack". DAWN.COM. Dawn Newspaper. Dawn Newspaper. Retrieved 20 December 2018. 'The suspects are Navy officials,' he added, giving no details about their ranks.
^Hasan, Syed Shoaib; Shah, Saeed; Gorman, Siobhan (16 September 2014). "Al Qaeda Militants Tried to Seize Pakistan Navy Frigate". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 February 2022. The Sept. 6 raid, which was foiled after a fire fight and a suicide bombing, was carried out in part by Pakistan Navy personnel who had been recruited by al Qaeda, these officials said. The raid, in which 10 militants and one petty officer died, raised fears about terrorist infiltration of the nuclear-armed nation's military forces.
^ abHundley, Tom (4 April 2018). "India and Pakistan are quietly making nuclear war more likely". Vox. Retrieved 19 February 2022. But an alert sailor on board the frigate noticed something was wrong. The men in the dinghy were armed with AK-47s—not the standard weapons used by Pakistani marines. When he challenged the group in the dinghy, a gunfight quickly erupted. While the attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, the sailor shredded the dingy with an anti-aircraft gun, killing all six. Hearing the commotion, navy commandos from another vessel rushed to the scene, but it still took several hours to regain control of the ship from the four rogue officers already on board. Eventually all of them were killed, the last one blowing himself up after he was cornered.
