National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf called on Tuesday India’s “indifferent and dismissive” approach to the firing of a missile inside Pakistan last week “worrisome”, after New Delhi said for the second time that the launch of the projectile across the border was “accidental”.
The incident had taken place on March 9, when the Air Defence Operations Centre of the Pakistan Air Force had picked up what was then identified as an “high-speed flying object” inside the territory.
“From its initial course, the object suddenly manoeuvred towards Pakistani territory and violated Pakistan’s air space, ultimately falling near Mian Channu at 6:50pm,” Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar had shared during a press briefing a day later and called for an explanation from India.
Subsequently, the Indian defence ministry had expressed regret over the incident, terming it “accidental” and attributing it to a “technical malfunction”.
Pakistan, however, demanded further explanation, calling India’s stance on the matter “simplistic”. The country also called for a joint probe into the incident.
Following these developments, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his country’s parliament today that New Delhi was conducting a review of its standing operating procedures for operations, maintenance and inspection of weapons systems after the March 9 incident.
“We attach the highest priority to the safety and security of our weapon systems. If any shortcoming is found, it would be immediately rectified,” Rajnath Singh said, repeating India’s earlier stance that the missile was launched accidentally during routine maintenance and inspection.
NSA Yusuf pointed out today that the “claim” made by India for the second time was a “simplistic explanation without evidence” that “is insufficient and should be unacceptable to the world”.
In a series of tweets, he said, “We remind India and the world that this was a highly sophisticated supersonic missile which could have caused loss of life in Pakistan and resulted in escalation between two nuclear-armed countries.”
“Once again, everyone must see for themselves which is the responsible state,” he added. “We all know that such incidents can easily escalate — history is full of such instances.”
The NSA said that Pakistan had once again acted responsibly during the episode to avoid any escalation, “exactly how we acted in 2019 when we shot down intruding Indian fighter planes after India tried to bomb us”.
“We even voluntarily returned their downed pilot to avoid escalation, Yusuf recalled.
The NSA further said the world should realise that “escalatory actions by India are a pattern, not an exception”.
“This is a classic character of an irresponsible and untrustworthy state when it comes to [the] handling of such sensitive weapon systems,” he added.
He highlighted that India’s “continued demonstration of lack of adequate safety and security protocols of their high-end weapons systems raises serious questions that remain unanswered” by Delhi.
“Their indifferent and dismissive approach after the incident is even more worrisome,” the NSA said, adding that “only a transparent joint probe can address the many unanswered questions about this so-called mistake”.
The NSA’s statement is the latest in a string of responses by Pakistan and the country’s politicians in the days following the March 9 incident.
Previously, the Foreign Office (FO) had issued a list of questions seeking explanations from India on multiple aspects of the incident, while the Indian envoy and charges d’affaires were summoned by the FO.
