Did IAF strike Karachi during Operation Sindoor? Air Marshal AK Bharti makes BIG revelation, says Malir Cantt was…
Operation Sindoor: In a major revelation about Operation Sindoor, Air Marshal AK Bharti, Monday confirmed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) several targets in Karachi, including Malir Cantonment, a military base located 35km from the Pakistani city. Addressing a special press briefing on Monday evening, Air Marshal Bharti, the Director-General of Operations for the IAF, stated that part of India’s “measured and calibrated” response to Pakistani aggression – i.e., the drone and missile strikes, and small arms fire and artillery shelling across the border – was the targeting of military installations, including a surface-to-air missile site at Malir Cantonment in Karachi.
The Air Marshal also revealed that the IAF also targeted a radar site in Lahore (presumably a Chinese-made HQ-9 air defense system), with Israeli-made HARPY drones, and another one near Gujranwala, in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Indian Navy pinned down Pak naval forces in Karachi
The revelation about the IAF hitting Pakistani military installations near Karachi comes a day after the Indian Navy detailed its role in Operation Sindoor, stating that its battle groups, submarines, and aviation assets, were deployed outside the harbor in Karachi to deter Pakistan’s naval forces from making any moves.
In a press briefing on Sunday, Vice Admiral AN Pramod said that Indian Navy remained in a “deterrent posture with full readiness and capacity to strike select targets at sea and on land, including Karachi, at a time of our choosing”. This, he said, compelled Pakistani naval and air units to be in a defensive posture, mostly inside harbours or very close to the coast…” while the conflict unfolded.
Operation Sindoor
On May 7, Indian armed forces launched a series of precise missile strikes on as many as nine terror infrastructures deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), killing more than 100 terrorists within a 25-minute window, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had revealed.
The strikes were launched in response to last month’s heinous Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 civilians, mostly tourists, dead in Kashmir valley.
India-Pakistan tensions
While India stressed that the strikes were “precise and non-escalatory”, targeting only terror bases, Pakistan chose to escalate the situation by launching a counter-strike, targeting Indian military sites in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Punjab with drones and missiles, while also resorting to heavy shelling across the Line of Control (LoC), that killed at least 16 civilians on this side of the border, and caused extensive property damage.
India retaliated to the aggression by launching attacks on Pakistani military infrastructure, including air bases in Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala and Rahim Yar Khan. According to the IAF, major air bases like Sagodha and Bholari — where Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had deployed its F-16 and JF-17 fighter jets, were also hit.
The IAF said Pakistani attacks caused “limited damage… to equipment and personnel at air bases at Udhampur (in J&K), Pathankot and Adampur (in Punjab) and Bhuj (in Gujarat)”.
India-Pakistan ceasefire
On May 10, after nearly four days of strikes and counter strikes, a US ‘mediated’ India-Pakistan ceasefire was announced on late Saturday evening, rekindling hopes of ending the surge in hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. But hours after the ceasefire announcement, India said Pakistan had violated the “bilateral understanding”, launching attacks in Srinagar and Jammu.
However, peace has prevailed since, and hostilities between the two sides have ceased for now.
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