military
Pakistani authorities verify counteroffensive against India has been initiated in the code name Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, which translates as ‘wall of lead’ in Arabic
Pakistan reported it had launched retaliation raids after accusing India of striking three of its military bases with missiles launched from fighter jets, in a significant ramping up of the tensions building between the two nuclear powers.
Pakistan military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry reported that India had launched six surface-to-air missiles in the direction of Nur Khan, Murid and Shorkot, three of Pakistan’s key military bases, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Most were intercepted by Pakistani air defence systems, he added.
Within hours, Pakistani officials confirmed that they had started their counter-offensive against India, dubbed the Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos, which means a passage in the Qur’an approximately meaning “wall of lead”.
Pakistan claimed the retaliatory attacks hit Indian army bases and infrastructure, such as Pathankot military air base and the BrahMos missile depot in the Indian state of Punjab and Udhampur air base in Indian-held Kashmir. Explosions and shelling from anti-aircraft guns were heard near all the locations. Loud explosions were also heard in the Indian-Kashmir city of Srinagar.
Urban and rural areas in Punjab, Haryana and Indian-administered Kashmir were placed on red alert, and citizens were asked to stay indoors while blackout restrictions were imposed.
India did not immediately respond to reports of suspected strikes but a statement from the ministry of defence read: “The Indian Armed Forces are maintaining a high state of alert, and all such aerial threats are being tracked and engaged using counter-drone systems.”
India’s army stated that Pakistan’s “blatant escalation with drones and other ammunition persists along our western borders”. They reported several hostile drones had appeared over the city of Amritsar in the province of Punjab, which were “immediately engaged and destroyed by our air defence units”.
Following the initiation of their counter attack, Pakistan’s prime minister convened a meeting of the National Command Authority, the principal organization responsible for decisions on control, command and operations of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal informed local media that “special measures” had been taken to prevent civilian targets in India and that they were targeting military sites that had been used to target Pakistan. “We would hate to see the nuclear threshold being breached,” Iqbal said.
One of the military bases reportedly hit by Indian missiles was Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, headquarters of the military and approximately 10km from the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Pakistan closed its air space after the attacks.
Social media footage demonstrated smoke and fire enveloping the sky at night as one hears someone announce, “There has been an attack on Nur Khan base.”
The pre-dawn attack on Nur Khan led to widespread panic in the crowded neighborhood, with its inhabitants fleeing out into the streets. “There was a big explosion which woke up everybody. It was terrible, everybody is still panicked,” remarked a local resident who lives in the area.
Pakistan accuses India of targeting military
India’s attempted attacks on Rawalpindi and other strategic military bases – and the launch of Pakistan’s counter-attack on Saturday – represents the sharpest escalation of their confrontation to date, and brings the two nations closer to war than they have been in decades.
On Wednesday Indian missiles hit nine locations in Pakistan and killed 31 individuals. Those shots, in turn, were India’s retaliation against an attack last month in Indian-held Kashmir in which militants killed 25 Hindu visitors and a guide, which they claimed was under Pakistan’s patronage.
India’s strikes on Pakistani military bases followed hours after Indian reported that Pakistan had initiated another series of drone attacks across 26 sites in the state of Punjab and Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday night. There were explosions heard near Srinagar’s airport, the capital city of India-administered Kashmir.
The Indian military stated that they had managed to intercept the drones for the most part but police reported three individuals in the Ferozepur district of Punjab along the border with Pakistan had been hurt by the drone attacks, one of whom was critical.
India blamed Pakistan earlier in the day for launching an attack using as many as 400 drones to hit cities, military bases and places of worship across northern India on Thursday.
India asserted that it had shot down hundreds of Pakistani drones, which crossed into Indian-held Kashmir, as well as into Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat. It claimed that a first wave hit on Thursday evening and that there was another wave near dawn on Friday.
India stated that it had made four drone strikes against Pakistan, targeting military defence infrastructure.
During a press conference on Friday, the Indian army accused Pakistan’s drone strikes on Thursday of targeting a gurdwara, a Sikh temple, injuring a civilian, and that the drones had also attacked Christian churches.
Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, had denied the drone attacks. But a Pakistan security official claimed that Thursday night’s drone attacks were just to “heat things up” before Pakistan’s full-scale retaliatory attack.
In an interview with Geo News after Pakistan started its counterattack, Ishaq Dar, the foreign minister and deputy prime minister of the country, claimed Pakistan had been left with no option but to retaliate.
There was no other choice because India demonstrated no seriousness in reaction to the diplomatic initiatives of friendly nations,” he added. “We acted only after India kept firing drones and missiles.
The US state department confirmed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called Pakistan’s army chief Gen Asim Munir early Saturday morning. Rubio urged de-escalation and “offered US help in initiating constructive talks to prevent future conflicts”, stated a state department spokesperson.
