Mahendra Nath Mulla

Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, (15 May 1926 – 9 December 1971) was an officer of the Indian Navy. As the commanding officer of INS Khukri (F149), he chose to go down with his ship when his ship was sunk during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Early life
Mulla was born on 15 May 1926 in a Kashmiri family in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh to T. N. Mulla in a family well-known in Allahabad judicial circles. He joined the Royal Indian Navy as a cadet in January 1946 and underwent training in the United Kingdom.

Military career
Mulla was commissioned in the Royal Indian Navy on 1 May 1948. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 16 September 1958. In April 1961, he was selected to attend the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He was promoted to the rank of commander on 30 June 1964. He served on the Hunt-class destroyer INS Gomati and the Bathurst-class Minesweeper HMIS Madras. He also served as the executive officer of the Black Swan-class sloop HMIS Kistna and commanded the R-class destroyer INS Rana.

He served as the deputy naval adviser to the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom from 1965 to 1967.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
During the 1971 War, Mulla was commanding the 14th anti-submarine squadron, a task force that formed part of the Western Fleet. The squadron consisted of the INS Khukri, INS Kirpan and INS Kuthar. The squadron was assigned the task of hunting and destroying enemy submarines in the North Arabian Sea. At 2050 hours on 9 December 1971, his vessel, INS Khukri, was hit by a torpedo fired by an enemy submarine, PNS Hangor, about 64 km off Diu. He issued orders for the ship to be abandoned because it was sinking. He chose to go down with the ship in the highest traditions of the Indian Navy. Mulla was decorated with the Maha Vir Chakra, the second-highest gallantry award.

The citation for the Maha Vir Chakra reads as follows:

Legacy
Mulla was regarded among the finest seamen in the Navy and highly-intelligent officer. On 28 January 2000, the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee released a commemorative postage stamp issued by India Post paying tribute to Mulla.

A memorial for the tribute to Mulla and other martyred sailors exists at Diu 20.70278°N, 70.97694°W. The memorial constitutes a full-scale model of INS Khukri encased in a glass house, placed on a hillock facing the sea. The Captain M. N. Mulla Auditorium, at Navy Nagar, Colaba in Mumbai, is named after him. A bust of Capt. Mulla stands in the foyer. The then Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Madhvendra Singh inaugurated the auditorium.

In Selection Centre South (SCS), Banglore, there is a hall named Capt.(IN) MN Mulla Hall after Capt. MN Mulla, MVC.

An auditorium at the DSSC Wellington is also named after him.