Online Reporter
Murad Baseer
ON the night of May 6, 2025, Indian Air Force jets attacked the sovereign territories of Pakistan by releasing standoff of missiles without crossing borders that targeted civilian residents, places of worship, cricket grounds and even a hydro power station. The cowardly attacks by the Indian Armed Forces came on the heels of the unfortunate terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, a tourist location in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) state, where for decades, the Government of India has been committing human rights violations and perpetuating state sponsored terrorism for more than 70 years denying the people of the IIOJK, the right to a plebiscite as enshrined by the United Nations resolutions. For the next 13 days the Indian Government initiated its hostile propaganda and war hysteria against Pakistan without providing a shred of evidence or credible proofs.
That attack was met with a befitting response in self-defence by the Pakistan Air Force and integrated elements of the Air Defence of Pakistan. An unprecedented aerial combat was fought in the domain of electronic warfare that outsmarted the Indian Air Force resulting in the loss of five of its aircrafts in the beyond visual range (BVR) aerial combat that lasted more than an hour. In this battle, Pakistan Air Force scored its biggest victory by not just downing five aircrafts, but by shooting down three state of the art Rafales, the 4.5 generation stealth aircrafts provided by France. This action permanently grounded the Indian Air Force for the rest of the crisis as the Rafales were parked 300km away from the Pakistan border. It is imperative to note here the Indian side has not acknowledged as yet on the downing of the Indian aircrafts as they never crossed the borders and their wreckage fell in India, however, evidence in today’s electronic warfare domain cannot be hidden as all projectiles, missiles and aircrafts have an electronic signature which the world will come to know in the due course of time.
With aircrafts grounded, India resorted and employed sophisticated armed Harpie and Harop drones, considered to be high-tech Israeli technology. Their main purpose was to identify and neutralise the integrated air defence systems so that the strategic assets of Pakistan armed forces could be targeted. Pakistan armed forces allowed these enemy drones to enter Pakistan territory mainly to avoid detection of its integrated air defence systems and employed soft and hard power to neutralise the drone threat within its air space. Pakistan air defence systems remained a bulwark against Indian aggression throughout this crisis and its strategy proved effective against the drones. Around 84 drones were neutralised. After failing in effectively employing its drone campaign, the Indians then unleased their long and intermediate range ballistic and cruise missiles at Pakistan.
This is where on the night of 10th May 2025, Pakistan armed forces began its Operation Bunyan Al Marsoos (meaning Wall of Lead). Pakistan armed forces hit Indian military targets through long range artillery fire, drones and its intermediate range ballistic missile Fatha-I. On the Indian side targets included air bases all along with Line of Control and the International border, fuel and ammunition dumps, including brigade headquarters, strategic assets of the Indian armed forces were also neutralised. The prize hits included a battery of S-400s advanced air defence system. In the recent crisis, three of these batteries were employed by India and the fourth is supposed to be delivered by the end of 2025. One of the S-400 battery system was destroyed with the employment of multi domain operations by the Pakistan armed forces. A devastating blow was also made on the Brahmos cruise missiles depot in Beas area that dented a crippling blow to the Indian side leading to the sudden ceasefire. The Indian government could not comprehend the incoming proportions of Pakistan’s response against Indian military targets as an element of surprise was achieved during this crisis.
Pakistan will never allow India to compromise on its national sovereignty. India tried to justify its aggression by striking some phantom terrorist camps that resulted in the killing of innocent civilians only. India also attacked Mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools which are found in all Muslim countries) even a hydro power project and a cricket ground during this crisis which is a manifestation of their cowardly acts. They have also unilaterally kept in abeyance the Indus Water Treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960, a flagrant disregard to international conventions. Pakistan acted in self-defence and utilised the right to respond under the Article 51 of the UN charter. India cannot be allowed to resort to provocative actions against Pakistan, they cannot be allowed to become Judge, Jury and Executioner all at the same time.
The Indian Government with its recent irresponsible actions has set a dangerous future precedence by attacking a sovereign country. Riding on the high horse of its jingoist Hindutva politics, the right-wing Indian leadership is playing a dangerous game that threatens to jeopardise the peace and stability of South Asia. Speaking of terrorism, India itself has been promoting state sponsored terrorism not just within the IIOJK state but also against nations around the world.
In 2016, Pakistan caught and exposed an operative of the Indian intelligence Mr. Kalbushan Yadev, a serving Indian Naval Officer working for the Indian intelligence Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Mr Yadev was responsible for the killing of hundreds of innocent citizens of Pakistan and was found involved in acts of terrorism within Pakistan. This officer is currently incarcerated in Pakistan for his crimes. Similarly, the Government of Canada exposed RAW for its involvement in the killing of Mr. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen in Canada in June 2023. In October 2024, a former RAW official Vikash Yadav, was charged in the United States for allegedly plotting a failed plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun a US citizen. The list goes on.
Pakistan believes in the peaceful resolution of bilateral issues between the two countries. That is why we have offered to the Government of India to hold an independent inquiry into the unfortunate terror attacks in Pahalgam. Unfortunately, the right-wing ruling party in India has practically closed all doors to official diplomatic channels, or through the famous Track-II diplomacy that used to comprise of retired military officers and diplomats from both sides. Instead, the ruling party in India is working on aggressive military posturing against Pakistan.
Unfortunately, both sides withdrew their High Commissioners and downgraded their diplomatic mission in Islamabad and Delhi after the 2019 revocation of the special status of the IIOJK state by India when it abrogated article 370 of the Indian constitution. War cannot be a solution to our problems. If the Taliban and United States can sit across the table in Doha for more than and decade and talk to each other, I am sure that Pakistan and India can also sit and chalk out their issues that will benefit the future of both countries and can lead both nations to the path of prosperity.
In the absence of such diplomatic forums, it seems that tensions will remain on both sides, especially in the wake of the recent crisis as India raised the level of conventional escalation never seen in the past. The last time India attacked Pakistani cities was during the 1971 war. Pakistan cannot allow India to escalate in the conventional realm under the nuclear umbrella, therefore, enforcing conventional deterrence during the recent crisis was extremely important for Pakistan which was amply demonstrated in the professionalism of the Pakistan armed forces. — Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Pakistan)
The author is a career diplomat of the Foreign Service of Pakistan with a career spanning over 27 years from key appointments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad to assignments in Qatar, Switzerland, Denmark and Egypt. He is currently serving as the Ambassador Plenipotentiary Extraordinary of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Republic of Zimbabwe. He is also accredited from Harare to the Republics of Zambia and Namibia and the regional economic community of COMESA.
