A top Pakistani politician and close aide to prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has acknowledged that during Operation Sindoor, Pakistan’s military had just 30 to 45 seconds to assess whether a BrahMos cruise missile launched by India carried a nuclear warhead.“When India fired BrahMos at Nur Khan airbase, Pakistan’s military had only seconds to determine if it was nuclear. That’s a dangerous situation,” Rana Sanaullah, special assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said in an interview.
The missile struck Nur Khan airbase, a high-value Pakistan Air Force (PAF) facility in Chaklala, Rawalpindi. Sanaullah admitted the incident threw Pakistan into panic mode, raising fears of a full-scale nuclear conflict.A flashpoint momentThe BrahMos strike came in the backdrop of a major India-Pakistan conflict following a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where 26 tourists were killed by Pakistan-linked terrorists. In retaliation, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting multiple terror camps and military installations across Pakistan.
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Sanaullah claimed that while India’s strike didn’t carry a nuclear payload, the sheer ambiguity of the incoming missile risked triggering a nuclear response. “I’m not saying India did good by not using a nuclear warhead. But such confusion could have sparked a global war,” he warned.Trump’s role – fact or fiction?The PML-N leader credited US President Donald Trump for “saving the world” by allegedly mediating during the crisis. “There needs to be an independent evaluation of Trump’s role,” he said. India, however, has consistently rejected any third-party intervention and maintains that it was Pakistan’s DGMO who reached out first to initiate de-escalation.Operation Sindoor: India’s precision offensiveSatellite imagery released by India revealed extensive damage to Pakistan’s military infrastructure. The Nur Khan base sustained hits on hangars, runways, and radar sites, impacting critical operations involving VIP fleets and Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones.Other airbases, Sargodha, Bholari, Jacobabad, Sukkur, and Rahim Yar Khan, were also targeted. Indian forces claimed to have killed over 100 terrorists and destroyed major Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen camps.Also read: Asia Cup: Pakistan hockey team’s participation cleared for tournament in India; visa process underwayPakistan retaliated with drones and missile strikes on western India, all of which were intercepted, before both sides agreed to a ceasefire after four days of intense exchanges.This wasn’t the first time India struck Nur Khan. The IAF’s 20 Squadron had also targeted the base in the 1971 war, marking the base as a historically strategic site.
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