Kirana Hills, located around 10 kilometres north of Sargodha, has long been associated with Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure.
Questions over whether India had targeted the area emerged after Pakistani media showed images of smoke rising from the hills during the military confrontation.
The Chief Minister of Pakistan's Sindh province confirmed that Indian air strikes targeting the Bholari airbase resulted in the deaths of six air force staff members.
Now, the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has addressed speculation over whether India struck Kirana Hills near Pakistan's Sargodha during Operation Sindoor.
He says - a loitering munition searching for radars may have come down and hit one of the hills after failing to find a target.
Chauhan said India had sent loitering munitions towards Sargodha to search for Pakistani radars before the strikes.
"Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering missions at Sargodha and Kirana Hills is about 10 kilometres north of Sargodha.
So the loitering mission is looking for radars which are in and around Sargodha," Chauhan said at an event organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation.
SARGODHA STRIKE CLEARED EVEN AFTER PAK SOUGHT TALKS
Chauhan also revealed that India cleared further strikes on Pakistani military targets even after Islamabad reached out for talks, with Sargodha among them.
He said Pakistan contacted India seeking talks when the Air Chief asked him whether the Indian Air Force should strike Sargodha.
"Once the Pakistanis had picked up the phone and said they wanted to talk at about 10 AM, the Air Chief asked me whether he should strike Sargodha. I said, 'Go ahead'," Chauhan said.
He explained that such a munition could remain airborne for around two hours while searching for a target.
If it failed to find one, it would eventually come down.
"It must have come and hit one of those hills. So that could be one of the reasons as to what people asked, because Pakistani media also showed some kind of images in which there was smoke coming out from Kirana Hills," he said.
Chauhan's remarks indicate that any impact at Kirana Hills was not part of a deliberate strike on the area or its nuclear facilities.
LOWER AIRSPACE WAS PART OF INDIA'S STRATEGY
The use of loitering munitions around Sargodha was part of India's broader decision to exploit the lower airspace during Operation Sindoor.
Chauhan described this as a "third option", distinct from the land-based response after the Uri terror attack and the large air package used following Pulwama.
"During Operation Sindoor, we decided to use a third option, that is, to exploit the lower airspace.
That means it would have kept the threshold of conflict low. It would have assured success and then there would have been an element of surprise," he said.
The lower air envelope can be used by drones, loitering munitions, attack helicopters and other low-level platforms.
The CDS also asked the Air Chief to identify two more targets.
"I said, could you please identify two more targets, so one of the targets he identified was Skardu. We gave a yes, but after some time, the weather was bad over it and they had to change over to Bholari," he said.
Chauhan said one of the principles in India's escalation matrix was that Pakistan would not be allowed to deliver the final strike.
"One of the couple of principles which we thought in the escalation matrix which we laid for ourselves was that the last strike or the winning note will always be delivered by us and not by the Pakistanis," he said.
The remarks shed light on India's escalation strategy during Operation Sindoor, including its decision to retain the option of further strikes even after Pakistan sought talks.
Chauhan also said Pakistan did not know whether its strikes had hit their intended targets and tried to obtain commercial satellite imagery until around May 12 to find evidence of damage.
"They were actually after 10th also till about 12th they were trying their best to obtain images so that they have some evidence," he said.
Pak's Bholari base hangar hit by India had Saab airborne control aircraft, 4 jets
Commissioned in December 2017, the Bholari airbase was regarded as one of Pakistan’s most advanced main operational bases. It is home to the 19 Squadron and the Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), operating F-16A/B Block 15 ADF aircraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment