The US-brokered ceasefire between India and Pakistan has for now ended hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours who were on the brink of a full-blown shooting war after military confrontations involving fighter jets, missiles, precision weapons, kamikaze drones and artillery guns escalated sharply during the last four days as India struck several terror sites, air bases and military installations in Pakistan which made desperate attempts to hit military infrastructure and civilian areas in several Indian states.
A halt to the fighting –– at least on paper; there were reports of Pakistan violating the ceasefire across the Line of Control (Loc) –– has prevented a wider conflict and put the spotlight on the battle outcomes for the two sides after India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 as a direct military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike that killed 26 people, officials tracking the events following the operation said on Saturday.
“We smashed the terror infrastructure there, hit their air defences and targeted several of their airbases. The Indian forces had a good run during the last four days. Pakistan’s counter-offensive was mostly thwarted,” said one of the officials, asking not to be named.
The operation began with India achieving its intended target; it hit nine terror training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the precision strikes killing around 100 terrorists in just 26 minutes; while India has not officially put out a number, 100 was the number mentioned by defence minister Rajnath Singh when he briefed leaders of other political parties, according to people present at the meeting. The targets were selected based on hard intelligence and their nefarious track record of perpetrating terror activities.
Five of the terror sites targeted across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir were between nine and 30 km inside PoK; the rest six to 100 km across the international border (IB) in Pakistan.
The weapons deployed included Rafale-launched Scalp cruise missiles and Hammer smart weapon, guided bomb kits, M777 howitzers with Excalibur munition, and loitering munitions (aka kamikaze drones). “The strikes threw Pakistan off balance. It launched a hurried counter-offensive that achieved little. Overall, India’s four-day report card outshines theirs,” said a second official.
The next night, Indian military thwarted Pakistan’s attempts to attack with missiles and drones several military targets in 15 cities in the country’s north and west, and targeted Pakistan’s air defences at several locations with the ones in Lahore and Karachi being destroyed in the counter-attack.
Through the last four days, Indian forces deployed a range of air defence systems to neutralise aerial threats from Pakistan. These includes Russian-origin S-400 Triumf air defence system, locally made Akash surface-to-air missiles, Barak 8 air defence system, a variety of anti-drone systems and other counter-measures to defeat the incoming threats that were swiftly engaged after being detected and tracked by an integrated network of radars, and command and control systems.
Both sides suffered military and civilian casualties in the exchange of artillery and mortar fire along the LoC.
On the intervening night of May 8-9, Pakistan launched attacks on 36 locations across India — from Leh, Jammu and Bathinda in the country’s north to Sir Creek in the west — with 300-400 Turkish-origin Asisguard Songar armed drones. Most of drones were shot down by the Indian forces. The Indian counterattack targeted Pakistan’s air defences.
The following day, Pakistan launched drone strikes at 26 locations along the LoC and IB, with Indian forces neutralizing the threats with its air defence systems, including counter-drone weapons.
Pakistan took its worst hit in the early hours of May 10 when the Indian Air Force struck eight military sites in Pakistan, including airbases, radar units and ammunition dumps, with air-launched precision weapons, in response to the neighbouring military’s brazen attacks on India’s military infrastructure and civilian areas using fighter jets, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and missiles.
The IAF struck military targets in Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Chunian, Pasrur and Sialkot. The night-long developments marked the fiercest clash between the two militaries since India launched Operation Sindoor. The targets hit by India included technical infrastructure, command and control centres, radar sites and weapon storage areas.
Over the past few days, Pakistan has suffered very heavy and unsustainable losses after it’s unprovoked attack on Indian installations, said Wing Commander Vyomika Singh during a briefing after the ceasefire was announced.
“There has been extensive damage to crucial Pakistani airbases like Skardu, Sargodha, Jacobabad and Bholari. Also, loss of air defence weapons and radars made the defence of Pakistani airspace untenable. Across the LoC, extensive and precise damage to military infrastructure, command and control centres and logistics installations led to a complete breakdown of its defensive and offensive capabilities,” she added.