KARACHI: After [a] day-long pursuit by two Pakistan destroyers who scourged the high seas and two air attacks by our heavy bombers and fighter-bombers, the `enemy` Cruiser Mauritius was still heading towards Karachi, obviously with the intention of bombarding the capital of Pakistan.

The raider was located about 230 miles from Karachi on Wednesday night [Oct 19] and was sighted by our destroyer about 345 p.m. on Thursday [Oct 20] afternoon. For about an hour our destroyers shadowed her, butcouldnotlaunchatorpedoattack...dueto unfavourable weather conditions. We expect to engage her in a battle tonight but it would be hazardous to guess if we would be able to prevent shelling of Karachi by the `enemy` raider, whose obvious intention seems to be not so much to cause damage to military installations as to create panic among the civilian population by her hit-and-run tactics.

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday the NHQ received a wireless message from a merchant ship, Virginia May, that she was being shadowed by an enemy cruiser. She gave her position approximately 230 miles south-east of Karachi. The message added that the cruiser was heading towards Karachi at a speed of 16 knots. Special representative