An Indian Missile Inadvertently Launched And Landed In Pakistan
According to a Bloomberg report, after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh explained how a missile “inadvertently launched” and landed in Pakistan on March 9, Pakistan had been preparing to launch a similar missile in a retaliatory strike.
Bloomberg cited unnamed sources as saying that Pakistan held back due to its initial assessment that indicated something was amiss.
Several BrahMos medium-range cruise missiles were launched by the India Air Force from Haryana’s Ambala, about 200 km from Delhi, Bloomberg reported. While some residential property was damaged and no one was injured, they reported.
Bloomberg reported that India did not use its direct hotline between the top army commanders on both sides to communicate with Pakistan. Air Force officials have instead ordered the missile systems to be stopped so no further launches can take place, according to Bloomberg.
I agree that both the Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence have refused to respond to NDTV’s questions regarding this report.
Last weekend, a spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force told reporters that the bomber missile’s flight path from Sirsa, Haryana, to Mian Channu, Pakistan’s Punjab Province, had been tracked.In the government’s official explanation, the accidental shooting occurred as the result of “technical malfunction during routine maintenance.”.
Deputy Prime Minister Rajnath Singh said the government is reviewing Standard Operating Procedures for operation, maintenance, and inspection after the incident. Singh stressed that the safety and security of India’s missile systems is of paramount importance. Any gaps found during the investigation would be addressed.
In his statement on Tuesday, Khan Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister said if Pakistan’s air force hadn’t picked it up inside India and it had caused an accident reaction, the consequences would have been “very serious”.
US officials backed India and said that no indications indicated that the missile firing was anything but an accident.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Monday, “We do not indicate that the incident was anything other than an accident.” That message was also repeated by our Indian partners.
There have been no positive developments in relations between India and Pakistan since a suicide attack occurred in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama in 2019. After Pakistani airstrikes in Balakot, India responded with airstrikes, which were followed by an aerial dogfight between the two countries.
Indian officials ordered an investigation after shooting a missile accidentally into Pakistan, saying they were taking the matter seriously.
Despite the incident happening on 9 March, India acknowledged it two days later, blaming it on a “technical malfunction” during maintenance.
Rajnath Singh, India’s defence minister, told the parliament on Tuesday that the incident was regrettable, but expressed relief that no one had been injured or killed.
Each country is armed with nuclear weapons.
Pakistan’s military claimed that the “high-speed object” crashed near Mian Channu in the eastern province of Balochistan, and its flight path endangered passenger flights.
An investigation into the incident is urgently needed to establish the facts accurately following the nuclear incident. India was criticised for its callousness and ineptitude in the nuclear environment.
He briefed members of parliament on Tuesday and claimed that the missile was accidentally released while the missile unit was undergoing routine maintenance and inspection.
In the aftermath of the missile accident, it became apparent that it fell in Pakistani territory. I am informing the house that the government has taken this matter very seriously, and an official order was given for a high-level investigation,” he explained. “We will only be able to determine what caused the incident if we conduct an investigation.”
As reported by Pakistan’s air force, the missile travelled at Mach 3 – three times the speed of sound – at an altitude of 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) and flew for 124 kilometres (77 miles) in Pakistani airspace before crashing, before taking off and travelling through the country’s airspace.
According to Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar on 11 March, “this object was within both India’s and Pakistan’s air space, and its flight path endangered many airborne national and international passenger flights as well as property.” India’s foreign ministry also expressed concern about the object.
Afterwards, Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced that it summoned India’s charge d’affaires to express its displeasure with the incident.
Additionally, Pakistan has urged India to release the findings of its investigation into what occurred.
Last week, an Indian missile accidentally launched prompted Pakistan to prepare a retaliatory strike, people familiar with the matter said, representing how close the nuclear-armed neighbours came to blows over a potentially disastrous error.
It appears that Pakistan planned to launch a similar missile to strike India but postponed the launch after initial assessments indicated that the missile might not be accurate, people familiar with the matter said.
The Indian missile caused some damage to residential property, but otherwise caused no casualties, officials said.
On March 9, the Indian Air Force launched the BrahMos medium-range cruise missile from the garrison town of Ambala, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital, according to people familiar with the matter. Human and technical errors were responsible for the mishap, which occurred during a routine exercise to test if the systems could take offensive action in the war.
Nevertheless, the direct hotline between top army commanders on both sides was never used by India after the launch to inform Pakistan, the source said, requesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the information.
Officials at the Air Force have moved to shut down the missile systems to avoid any further launches.
The Pakistani people claimed Pakistan held a press conference a day after failing to receive an explanation from India, to publicize the incident. In response to Pakistani protests over the launch, India finally responded Friday.
According to Pakistan’s Air Force, the missile followed the path from the northern Indian town of Sirsa to its landing spot in the city of Mian Channu in the country’s Punjab province.
The location of the missile’s landing spot is unknown at this time, spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar told reporters in Rawalpindi, where the country’s military is headquartered.
A missile was accidentally launched
Even though cruise missiles have designated targets, the missile that was launched failed to arm itself because it missed its target, the people stated. A few months ago, the Indian Air Force launched a missile that failed to reach its target.
Today, the Indian Air Force is reviewing what went wrong and whether to modify the standard operating procedures.
In response to requests for comment, the Indian Air Force, Indian Army, and the Indian Defense Ministry declined to comment. As for the Pakistan Army and Foreign Ministry, they did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement to the Indian parliament on Tuesday, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that an inquiry would uncover the precise reasons for the accidental launch.
In his words, India gives the utmost importance to the safety and security of its missile systems, and any gaps discovered during the investigation will be addressed.
This is a very serious matter
According to a statement released over the weekend, Pakistan has called on the international community to take notice of this grave incident in a nuclearized environment.
At a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi posed the question, “Do people understand the implications, the consequences of that if Pakistan’s air force didn’t pick it up inside India and was associated with an accident?” During his visit to the capital, Qureshi conducted a briefing in Pakistan. “That’s a very serious matter.”
India’s nuclear warheads and delivery mechanisms are always kept separate when the country is at peace. Strategic Forces Command, the country’s military command headed by the prime minister, is responsible for creating the country’s nuclear-armed missiles. Several layers of permissions must be obtained before missiles can be moved.
India and Pakistan, both of which gained independence from British rule in 1947, have had hostile relations since the latter gained independence.
In the Himalayas, a region in which both countries can claim full control — and in which tensions have been evident — is Kashmir, a region claimed and ruled in full by both countries. During their three wars, the two countries have fought over control of the region twice.
Tensions have been high since an Indian paramilitary police officer was killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir by a suicide bomber in 2019. A dogfight ensued between the aircraft of India’s government and Pakistan’s government following prime minister Narendra Modi’s response with airstrikes on Pakistani soil for the first time since 1971.
There is an agreement between the two countries requiring them to notify each other ahead of flight tests of ballistic missiles and military exercises. However, that arrangement does not cover tests of cruise missiles.
Any cruise missile flight, especially for a missile that travels at a higher speed than the standard cruise missile, such as BrahMos, occurs very quickly,” explained Christopher Clary, a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center’s South Asia program. The Pakistani air defence radars could have detected the missile, but that is by no means certain, and they would have only had minutes or even seconds to coordinate a response to the intrusion.”
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
