Operation Sindoor: Deputy PM admits Pak asked for ceasefire after India struck 2 airbases – Watch | India News
NEW DELHI: Dragging his feet to the truth after repeated denials, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday admitted that India struck Rawalpindi’s Nur Khan Airbase and the Shorkot Airbase during Operation Sindoor, which was carried to avenge the Pahalgam terrorist attack, in which 26 civilians were killed by ISI-groomed terrorists.India attacked the Nur Khan and Shorkot airbases on the intervening night of May 6 and 7. Within 45 minutes of the strike, Saudi Prince Faisal offered to speak to external affairs minister S Jaishankar on behalf of Pakistan’s deputy PM, seeking to halt further action against Pakistan.Dar’s statement strongly suggests that Islamabad desperately scrambled to find help in persuading India to halt its kinetic action, which was “precise, measured and non-escalatory”.Nur Khan air base Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan, situated in Chaklala, Rawalpindi is around 10km from Islamabad, Pakistan capital. It is an active airbase that encompasses the former Benazir Bhutto International Airport within its grounds. The facility, originally established as RAF Station Chaklala and later known as PAF Base Chaklala, continues to serve as a vital military installation in Pakistan. The base is also home to PAF College Chaklala, which trains Aviation Cadets, and Fazaia Inter College Nur Khan, providing additional educational facilities on the premises.Imtiaz Gul, a defence analyst, claimed that the strategically important Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi is “under American control.”Rafiqui air base Pakistan Air Force Base Rafiqui, situated near Shorkot in Jhang District, is a major military installation located 337 kilometers south of Islamabad. The base features a 10,000-foot runway with a parallel taxiway that serves as an emergency landing strip. The airbase was previously known as PAF Base Shorkot before being renamed after Sarfaraz Ahmed Rafiqui, a fighter pilot from the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. The base’s infrastructure includes a primary runway and an emergency taxiway system that allows for aircraft recovery operations when needed.Operation SindoorOperation Sindoor was India’s swift, calculated tri‑service cross-border assault on the dead night of May 6 and 7, targeting nine terror camps deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan‑occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the brutal April 22 Pahalgam massacre that claimed 26 innocent lives.Within 25 minutes, India’s Army, Navy and Air Force deployed SCALP cruise missiles, HAMMER smart bombs, loitering munitions and ground-to-ground weaponry, killing around 70 to 100 militants and crippling key Lashkar‑e‑Taiba, JeM and Hizbul Mujahideen infrastructure at Bahalwalpur and Muridke in Pakistan. Pahalgam’s terrorists thought they were sending a message when they murdered husbands in front of their wives, after selecting victims by their religion. Via the name Operation Sindoor, the government sent an immeasurably bigger message back as India avenged the loss suffered by those women. Sindoor, vermillion, is a symbol of marriage in Hindu custom. Pakistan’s military-intelligence-jihadi complex would have been among the first to note the image put out by Indian Army right after government’s confirmation of the strikes – Operation Sindoor in block letters, with the first ‘O’ represented by a bowl of vermillion.
