The Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (IRIS) Dena' last port of call, after it left Indian waters, was Sri Lanka's Hambantota deep sea-port. But, somewhere between the sinking of the ship and the scramble to assign blame, India found itself in a conversation it never asked to be part of. On March 4, 2026, the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Eighty-seven people died. It was a tragedy by any measure and it was also, without ambiguity, an act of war between the United States and Iran, a conflict that has been building for years and has nothing to do with New Delhi.
What followed, however, was telling. Within days, attention turned however obliquely toward India. The reason? IRIS Dena had participated in the MILAN naval exercise hosted by India at Visakhapatnam just weeks earlier.
But, the precise details, accessed by Times Now, reflecting in the timeline since Dena left Indian shores is important to put across the India's position.
The sea phase of MILAN 2026 concluded on February 24. IRIS Dena departed Indian shores the following day, called at Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and then spent over eight days in international waters. Three days after MILAN ended, the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran. Eight days after the exercise, IRIS Dena was gone. India's maritime responsibility, under any reasonable interpretation of international law, ended the moment the vessel left Indian territorial waters not when it reached home port, and certainly not when it became a casualty of a war India had no hand in.
Milan is an important multinational maritime exercise hosted by the Indian Navy since 1995. The MILAN 2026 saw participation from 74 countries including Iran and the United States.
The attack fell within the jurisdiction of Marine Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) Colombo. The Sri Lankan authorities responded accordingly. The Indian Navy, upon learning of the incident, did activate its assets for Search and Rescue.
The more uncomfortable question, one that has largely gone unasked, is what exactly an Iranian warship was doing loitering in those waters for eight days. The United States was in active hostilities with Iran. IRIS Dena was a belligerent naval vessel. In the logic of warfare, that made it a legitimate target regardless of where it sailed. History has established this repeatedly—naval conflict has never confined itself to territorial waters, and vessels of warring nations have always been fair game in the open sea.
What gives this episode its sharper edge is the selective outrage surrounding it. Over twenty Iranian vessels have reportedly been struck by U.S. forces in this conflict. Those sinkings passed largely without international comment. IRIS Dena, however, the one with an Indian connection, however tenuous, became front-page news and the subject of a diplomat's public statement. That disproportion is not accidental, and India would do well to recognise it for what it is.
The counter-argument writes itself: had IRIS Dena spent those eight days in international waters and then launched a strike against U.S. assets, would the narrative have been that an Indian naval exercise provided the operational cover for an Iranian attack? That logic would be dismissed immediately. It cannot, therefore, be applied selectively only when it suits a different argument.
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
