Indian journalists, former Indian diplomats, and others have said that the Pakistani response to an accidental Indian missile misfiring into Pakistani territory has been “very, very mature”.
Many also said that this accident is extremely dangerous and “shocking”.
Former Indian diplomat K. C. Singh tweeted, “Such gross failure of command & control in a nation with nuclear weapons reflects very poorly on India. Imagine if it had been fired towards China. Retaliation may’ve been in kind or worse.”
Journalist Sushant Singh wrote, “Nuclear weapon states don’t fire a missile into an adversary’s territory, accidentally or otherwise. Period.”
Journalist Shekhar Gupta tweeted, “This is so worrying and, frankly embarrassing. A supersonic cruise missile strays from one nuclear weapon power into another. Stuff Cold War nightmares were made of. This could’ve led to unintended disaster. Good the Pakistanis kept their counsel.” He also wrote that Indian “warrior TV channels would’ve gone ballistic—with warheads, of course”.
Author Jyotsna Mohan tweeted, “If Pakistan had ‘accidentally’ fired a missile 100kms into India, imagine how many would have gone to fight at the border from their couches and twitter.”
Indian national security analyst Nitin A. Gokhale said the accident “should worry the brass”.
Journalist Nirupama Subramanian said that Indian should have acknowledged missile fiasco “immediately after it happened instead of keeping quiet for 48 hours after the incident, and making a statement only after Pakistan announced it”. She added, “It’s a zero error job. no room for #galtisemistake.”
Pakistan’s response to the Indian statement
Pakistan’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf tweeted that it has taken more than two days for India to accept that this was their missile launched ostensibly due to a technical malfunction during maintenance.
“This raises serious questions about India’s ability to handle such sensitive technology. This missile traveled close to the path of international and domestic commercial airlines and threatened the safety of civilians,” said Yusuf.
Indian Ministry of Defence statement
The Indian government on Friday (March 11) admitted that “a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile“, which in Mian Channu in Pakistan. The Indian statement came a day after Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Babar Iftikhar held a press conference about the supersonic missile from India. “Whatever caused this incident to happen, it is for the Indians to explain”, said DG ISPR, adding that the incident could have resulted in a major aviation disaster.
