ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected Indian investigation report on missile incident of March 9, 2022. India sacked of three officials of her Indian Air Force for ignoring SOPs during maintenance operations. Pakistan has termed Indian report as “unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate”. Pakistan once again has reiterated its demand for a joint investigation into this matter.

Pakistan’s foreign office has issued a statement in this regard.

“As expected, the measures taken by India in the aftermath of the incident and the subsequent findings and punishments handed by the so-called internal Court of Inquiry are totally unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate.

According to Pakistan’s foreign office, “Systemic loopholes and technical lapses of serious nature in handling of strategic weapons cannot be covered up beneath the veneer of individual human error. If indeed India has nothing to hide then it must accept Pakistan’s demand for a joint probe in the spirit of transparency.” the statement.

Indian Air Force had a day earlier said that the Court of Inquiry (Col), which investigated the missile incident, found out that violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by three officers had caused the “accidental firing of the missile”. It is worth asking if SOPs were violated, how comes it is categorized as “accidental”?

Pakistan had rejected the formation of Indian CoI earlier as well. The FO statement said: “Pakistan categorically rejects India’s purported closure of the highly irresponsible incident and reiterates its demand for a joint probe.”

COMMENTS:

This missile incident was a very serious concern from national security PoV. Pakistan has been asking for joint investigations  of this incident since the day it happened due to some very specific reasons and most important among those was perhaps the political allegiance of involved individual. It is believed that Indian right wing political influences have creeped in Indian military establishment. The incident of February 26, 2019 in Balakot was also a manifestation of this assertion as per many Pakistani security experts, and they feel the case of Brahmos firing on March 9, 2022 also has same fingerprints on it.

Most importantly, such event from either country can trigger an unwarranted response to trigger a wider conflict with a potential of turning into a nuclear exchange. The fact that distances between Pakistan and Indian military targets are not in thousands of mile where one can inform the other about such “accidents” like the US and Soviet Union or the US and China. Pakistan had expressed this reservation earlier when India announced the formation of CoI.

GCW editor Farzana Shah has expressed similar concerns over Indian investigations and fears that hints that Indian nuclear arsenal in the hands of religiously motivated political fanatics within Indian Military pose a direct threat to more than 3 billion people in the region.

Sacking of 3 IAF officers over firing of Brahmos cruise missile that landed in Pakistan on 9 March,
hints that Indian nuclear arsenal in the hands of religiously motivated political fanatics within Indian Nilitary pose a direct threat to more than 3 billion people in the region.

— Farzana Shah (@Jana_Shah) August 24, 2022

She has further revealed that according to research of missile’s flight path and other parameters points towards deliberate firing of Brahmos. In this backdrop, she termed this inquiry & sacking of 3 IAF junior Officers is a cosmetic measure.

Our analysis based on technical calculations, flightpath, other parameters points towards deliberate firing of Brahmos.
So this inquiry & sacking of 3 IAF junior Officers is a cosmetic measure to give a clean chit to high Indian saffroni Military command over the misadventure

— Farzana Shah (@Jana_Shah) August 24, 2022

GCW will keep updating this story in case new information comes to the fore.

News Desk