Issue Brief on “Accident or an Attack: India’s Missile Landed in Pakistan”

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Introduction

On March 9, 2022, around 6:50pm in the evening, an Indian projectile flying at supersonic speed landed near Mian Channu, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. A few minutes earlier while the projectile was still inside the Indian territory, it was detected and appeared on the radar screens of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the latter continuously monitored it till the impact. Initially, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and its statecraft remained completely silent on the subject matter. However, on March 10, after a detailed briefing by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) indicating the flight path and trajectory of the projectile, the Indian statecraft reluctantly began to acknowledge the launch and landing of the projectile inside Pakistani territory (Figure 1). Subsequently, on March 11 (two days later), the India Ministry of Defence and Press Information Bureau acknowledged the incident.[1]

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