New Delhi: Pakistan’s attempt to replicate India’s high-precision missile strikes on terror establishments across Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), failed miserably early on Thursday.
According to reports, India’s missile defence systems detected and destroyed missiles over Punjab’s Amritsar district in the wee hours of Thursday. The missiles were apparently launched by Pakistan, exactly 24-hours after Operation Sindoor. The Golden Temple in Amritsar may have been one of the targets, officials suspect.
Locals reported a blackout in Amritsar between 1.10 am and 1.20 am on Thursday, followed by flashes in the sky and mid-air explosions. There were 6-7 explosions within as many minutes, locals said. After daybreak, missile fragments were found scattered in the fields. These were later collected and taken away by the armed forces.
According to a source, they seemed to be Chinese-made missiles.
While officials remained tight-lipped about the missiles, they acknowledged a power shutdown in Amritsar during that period. Amritsar is barely 30 km from the International Border. Missile parts were recovered from fields in Jethuwal, Makhan Windi and Pandher on the city’s outskirts in the morning.
Locals said some of the debris also landed on houses but caused no damage to life or property. “The residents were startled by loud explosions between 1am and 2am and when they stepped out to check what was going on, they saw ‘illuminated objects’ in the sky. I woke up with a start on hearing the explosion. Soon, other members of the family and relatives in the city started calling up because they too had heard the blast,” Hindustan Times reproted, quoting advocate Jaswinder Singh.
He claimed that pieces of metal were found on the terrace of a nearby building. Another object was found from Pandher village under the Majitha police station. Amritsar has been on high alert after Op Sindoor in which nine targets – all of them terror establishments – were destroyed by Indian armed forces in calibrated, high-precision missile strikes. India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh has said that nearly 100 terrorists were killed in the attacks.
This strike came after the terror strike in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22 that left 26 persons, most of them tourists from across the country dead and several others injured.
