Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has admitted Indian forces’ BrahMos missile attacks during the night of May 9-10 foiled his military’s plans to strike India.
In Azerbaijan’s Lachin, where Sharif spoke at the Pakistan-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral summit, the Pakistani premier acknowledged that India’s supersonic long-range missile attacks – almost 15 of them – took his country by surprise and hit as many as 11 key military installations across Pakistan, including the Rawalpindi airport, and Nur Khan and Murid airbases.
The other Pakistani military areas that were hit include bases at Rafiqui, Murid, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian. The airbases in Skardu, Bholari, Jacobabad and Sargodha also suffered extensive damage.
Sharif further stated that Pakistani military, under its army chief Asim Munir, who has since been promoted to Field Marshal, had prepared to launch a retaliatory offensive against India in the wee hours of May 10 at 4.30 a.m. after their Fajr (morning) prayers.
“On the night of May 9-10, we decided to respond in a measured fashion to Indian aggression. Our armed forces were prepared to act at 4.30 in the morning after Fajr prayers to teach a lesson,” Sharif said, adding, “But before that hour even arrived, India once again launched a missile attack using BrahMos, targeting various provinces of Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi.”
The Nur Khan airbase is a stone’s throw from the Pakistan Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi and houses top-of-the-line military aircraft such as Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Ilyushin Il-78 refuellers. Satellite images show damage to at least two military transport vehicles.
Sharif’s big admission confirms the scale and timing of India’s precision strikes from Su-30MKI jets on major Pak sites as part of Operation Sindoor, an aftermath of the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 that took 26 lives. India accused Pakistan of directing the attack across the border.
India’s ‘fire and forget’ missiles also bypassed Pakistan’s Chinese-origin air defence systems before hitting their military sites. The missiles, made in collaboration with Russia, can strike targets up to 300 km away.
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