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India has admitted ‘accidentally firing’ a supersonic missile into Pakistan, calling the incident a ‘technical malfunction’. This is yet another flagrant violation of Pakistani airspace, which can spiral into a great conflict and threaten regional peace and stability.
India’s Ministry of Defence issued a brief statement stating that it ‘deeply regrets’ the incident and has launched a probe, expressing ‘relief’ that there was no loss of life. This is rather preposterous as the unmanned projectile could have struck civilian areas and destroyed property. It could also have led to a major aviation disaster as foreign and domestic flights were mid-air and hundreds of lives could be lost.
The matter was highlighted when the DG ISPR gave a press briefing and revealed that an ‘unarmed flying objection’ was intercepted violating Pakistani airspace, and eventually crashed near the small town of Mian Channu in Punjab, over 124 km into Pakistani territory. Pakistan has sought an explanation from New Delhi, calling it an act of aggression, and showing complete disregard of aviation safety.
The Indian envoy was summoned to register a strong protest over the unprovoked violation and such irresponsible incidents. The foreign minister said the international community and aviation bodies must take notice as he called for a thorough and transparent investigation. The global community is urged to take action of this flagrant violation and caution against recurrence of such incident.
It is unsure what the projectile was but indications leads towards medium-range BrahMos, one of the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world. Regardless of true nature of the incident, India’s admission is evidence of the blatant airspace violation.
India should certainly be held accountable for the incident. It should remember lessons of its airspace violation in February 2019 when it received a humbling by Pakistan Air Force and its fighter jet was shot down after a dogfight. It should be reminded that Pakistan’s valiant armed forces are fully capable to thwart any act of aggression and should never be estimated.
