India’s accidentally fired missile nearly led to Pakistan retaliation: Report

A Bloomberg article alleges that Pakistan had prepared to shoot a similar missile in retaliation after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed parliament how a missile was inadvertently launched on March 9 and landed in Pakistan.

According to unidentified officials mentioned by Bloomberg, Pakistan held back since an early evaluation showed something was wrong. As per report, the Indian Air Force launched the BrahMos medium-range cruise missile from Ambala, Punjab, some 200 kilometres from Delhi. The rocket caused some damage to residential property but no injuries.

India did not use the direct hotline between top army commanders on both sides to alert Pakistan. Instead, Air Force officials proceeded to shut down the missile systems to prevent any additional launches. The Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence in India have both declined to comment on this allegation when contacted by media.

Last weekend, military spokesperson Major General Babar Iftikhar informed reporters that the Pakistan Air Force had monitored the missile’s flight route from Sirsa in Haryana to its landing place in Mian Channu city in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

According to the authorities, the unintentional fire was caused by a technical fault during standard maintenance. After the event, Rajnath Singh said in parliament that the government is evaluating Standard Operating Procedures for operations, maintenance, and inspections.

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Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday, ‘if Pakistan’s Air Force didn’t pick it up inside India and it was matched with an accident reaction, the consequences would have been very serious’.

The United States has backed India, claiming that there is no evidence that the missile launch was anything other than an accident. ‘We have no indication as you also heard from our Indian partners that this incident was anything other than an accident’, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Monday.