Islamabad: Rana Sanaullah, the advisor to Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, has claimed that India and Pakistan were seconds away from being embroiled in a nuclear war during Operation Sindoor.
According to Rana Sanaullah, the Pakistan military had just 30 to 45 seconds to assess whether the BrahMos cruise missile fired by India towards the Nur Khan Airbase during Operation Sindoor was armed with a nuclear warhead and even a slight misunderstanding or misjudgment during those critical, tense seconds could have led to a nuclear conflict between the two neighbours.
India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the Pehalgam terror attack of April 22 in which Islamist terrorists killed 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists, after explicitly asking their religion.
“When India fired a BrahMos missile that hit our Nur Khan airbase, Pakistan’s military had just 30 or 45 seconds to analyse if the cruise missile had a nuclear warhead. And to decide anything in those 30 seconds was such a dangerous situation,” Sanaullah told a Pakistani news channel.
“I am not saying they did good by not using a nuclear warhead. But if people on this side misunderstood the situation, it could have led to an action from Pakistan or triggered one from India. Such a situation could have sparked a global nuclear war,” he added.
Nur Khan, which is located near the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, is one of the biggest airbases of the Pakistan Air Force.
It was among 11 airbases targeted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) during Operation Sindoor. The Indian Air Force had also struck airbases in Sargodha, Rafiqui, Jacobabad, and Murid.
