-BrahMos Missile was mysteriously fired into Pakistan on March 9
-India admitted incident occurred due to deviation from SOPs
-Pakistan had warned India to avoid such incidents in future
-When Missile was fired, many domestic and international passenger flights were flying on its routes
-The Missile was originated from Indian City of Sirsa and was crashed near Pakistan’s Mian Channu
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force said on Tuesday the government had sacked three officers for “accidentally” firing a missile into Pakistan in March, an incident that the two nuclear-armed rivals handled calmly as there were no casualties.
The BrahMos Missile — a nuclear-capable, land-attack cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India — was fired on March 9, prompting Pakistan to seek answers from New Delhi on the safety mechanisms in place to prevent accidental launches.
“A Court of Inquiry, set up to establish the facts of the case, including fixing responsibility for the incident, found that deviation from the Standard Operating Procedures by three officers led to the accidental firing of the missile,” the air force said in a statement.
It said the government had dismissed the three officers with immediate effect on Tuesday.
According to the US-based Arms Control Association, the BrahMos missile’s range is between 300 km (186 miles) and 500 km (310 miles), making it capable of hitting Pakistan’s capital Islamabad from a northern Indian launch pad.
Pakistan had summoned Indian Charge d’Afaires (Cd’A) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs days after the incident to record the nation’s protest over the incident. “The Government of India is cautioned to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of such violations in future,” a statement by the FO had stated.
The Indian Defence Ministry had subsequently shared that the incident was “deeply regrettable” and attributed the “accidental firing” to a “technical malfunction”.
Following India’s admission, Islamabad had questioned why New Delhi failed to immediately share information about the incident and acknowledged the occurrence only after Pakistan announced it, seeking clarification.
The FO had taken note of India accepting the missile accident, saying that the matter could not be addressed through the “simplistic explanation” by India and had listed a set of questions and issues in this regard, which it had said must be answered by the Indian authorities.
The United States had also later chimed in, saying that it had “no indication” that the missile launch was “anything other than an accident”. The FO had condemned unprovoked violation of its airspace that could have endangered passenger flights and civilian lives. According to Pakistani officials, the missile was unarmed and crashed near the country’s eastern city of Mian Channu, about 500 kilometers from Islamabad.
A Pakistani military spokesman told a news conference on March 10 that the missile originated from the northern Indian city of Sirsa. “The flight path of this object endangered many national and international passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace as well as human life and property on ground,” he said.
