Following her commissioning,
Zulfiquar has been deployed to witnessed actions in the
war on terror in
Afghanistan and the
piracy off the coast of Somalia, when she was deployed to lead
military operation to provide rescue and sealift of the personnel of MV
Suez in 2011. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Gallery==