HOW INDIAN MISSILES DEVASTATED PAKISTAN

Unlike the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, this time the Pakistanis had nothing to hide, including their widespread global embarrassment.

- JYOTI SINGH

In the wee hours of May 7, 2025, India started an ambitious military campaign under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The Indian Air Force with the help of Dassault Rafale fighter jets armed with Scalp missiles and Hammer bombs launched airstrikes on nine targets consisting of terrorist training camps, Islamic seminaries and madrasas located deep inside Pakistan and PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) leading to the death of more than 100 Islamic jihadi terrorists (possibly around 170).

The military campaign christened Operation Sindoor also witnessed the Indian military launching kamikaze drone strikes and cruise missile strikes on Pakistan's air defence units using Israeli-made IAI Harop loitering munitions and Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft the next day after Pakistan escalated the conflict by launching missiles and Turkish drones targeting civilian areas in Jammu and Punjab.

Hostilities reached a temporary pause on May 10, 2025, after a US-backed ceasefire proposal was sent by the Pakistani DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) to the Indian DGMO and it was accepted by New Delhi.

However, by the time the ceasefire came into effect (5 PM IST on May 10, 2025), India had already extracted a heavy price from Pakistan by destroying at least 20 per cent of Pakistan's air defence assets and badly crippling its offensive aerial capabilities. The damage done to Pakistani military infrastructure was tremendous and Pakistan was left exposed naked and bare under the glare of international surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, leaving everyone to see and verify the proofs themselves. Unlike the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, this time the Pakistanis had nothing to hide, including their widespread global embarrassment.

A brief timeline of events