Bhagwat denies that he was pulled up and says Admiral R H Tahiliani, his then Commander-in-Chief Western Command, complimented him. However, his decision to fire figures in the long list of complaints by Vice Admiral Harinder Singh.

At present Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Harinder Singh quotes the then CNS as saying: ``...Out of sheer panic he almost opened fire on a Pakistani Atlantic (sic) aircraft, which had come close to his ship. The panicky over-reaction was not a happy sign and showedlack of fitness to hold higher posts.''

Both the Navy and the Air Force now have admitted that Tuesday's intrusion was not the first. Recalls Bhagwat: ``We were some 600 miles south-west of Karachi when this Atlantique overflew INS Ranjit once. The ship was under my command. And a warship is sovereign territory nation in international waters. A military aircraft cannot overfly it but Pakistan Navy's Atlantique made low dangerous passes at deck level repeatedly -- obviously gathering data.''

Bhagwat switched to the international frequency (VHF) and told the Atlantique pilot that he was violating airspace. ``But the Atlantique crew paid no heed and continued to fly low,'' he says. Then the newly acquired INS Ranjit put up the red flag, according to standard international practice, and warned the hostile enemy aircraft.

It was then that Bhagwat ordered the firing. Not to bring down the Pakistani aircraft, says Bhagwat, but ``warning shots off the bearing of the aircraft'' to scare theAtlantique away.