Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday rejected as “incomplete and insufficient” India’s explanation for its firing of an unarmed missile into its neighbour’s territory last week, which New Delhi said was an “accident.”
“What Indian defence minister had said in the Lok Sabha is incomplete and insufficient [sic]. It is not enough to satisfy Pakistan. I reject that and demand a joint probe,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters at a press conference on March 15 as quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI).
“This was a highly irresponsible act and the answer given is equally irresponsible,” he said.
Qureshi further revealed he “had written to the U.N. Security Council on the matter and asked the international community to take the matter up,” according to Reuters.
Pakistan’s foreign minister referred on Tuesday to an incident on March 9 in which India’s military said it “accidentally” fired an unarmed missile from the northwestern Indian city of Sirsa into Pakistan’s eastern Mian Channu city. Channu is located about 310 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan’s national capital.
“On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile,” India’s Ministry of Defense said in a press release published on March 11.
“It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan. While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident,” the statement read.
India’s Defense Ministry added New Delhi had “taken a serious view” of the projectile’s firing and subsequently ordered a “high-level inquiry” into the incident.
Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Babar Iftikhar described the projectile in question on March 10 as “a supersonic flying object, most probably a missile.”
“[I]t was certainly unarmed,” he added.
Iftikhar detailed the incident during a press conference on March 10. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying:
On March 9, at 6:43 pm, a high-speed flying object was picked up inside the Indian territory by Air Defence Operations Centre of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).
From its initial course, the object suddenly manoeuvred towards Pakistani territory and violated Pakistan’s air space, ultimately falling near Mian Channu at 6:50 pm.
Pakistan Air Vice Marshall Tariq Zia also spoke to reporters on March 10, telling them the missile flew at three times the speed of sound and “was 40,000 feet high” while flying 77 miles into Pakistani air space.
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