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KARACHI, Friday (AFP) Pakistan's navy is set to commission its first "indigenously built" Agosta 90B submarine officials said.

The submarine is the second of three Agosta 90B models commissioned from France. Eleven French engineers helping Pakistan to build the submarine in southern port city Karachi were killed by a suicide bomber outside their hotel in May 1998.

The first Agosta 90B under the contract was built in France with Pakistani technicians given on-the-job training.

"This submarine would be commissioned and handed over to our navy fleet to be able to take part in any operational commitment along with other units of the fleet," navy spokesman Commodore Shahid Nadil told AFP.

"The commissioning of this submarine symbolises a quantum leap towards national policy of self-reliance in meeting the operational requirements of Pakistan Navy."

The submarine is the second in the series of "Khalid Class" submarines named after the first Agosta 90B and commissioned into the Pakistan Navy in September 1999.

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