Pakistan Had Prepared To Launch A Similar Missile Strike On India : Bloomberg

An accidental missile fired by India last week prompted Pakistan to prepare a retaliatory strike, people familiar with the matter said, showing how close the nuclear-armed neighbors came to blows over a potentially disastrous mistake.

Pakistan had prepared to launch a similar missile to strike India but held back because an initial assessment indicated something was amiss, people familiar with the matter said. The Indian missile ended up damaging some residential property but caused no casualties, reported Bloomberg

The Indian Air Force fired the BrahMos medium-range cruise missile on March 9. The mishap occurred due to human and technical errors during a routine exercise to check systems capable of taking offensive action in war, the people said.

Still, after the launch India didn’t use the direct hotline between the top army commanders on both sides to inform Pakistan, the people said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. Instead, Air Force officials moved to shut down the missile systems to avoid any further launches, they said.

Pakistan’s Air Force said it tracked the flight path of the missile from the Indian town of Sirsa to its landing spot in Mian Channu city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, military spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar told reporters in Rawalpindi, home to the country’s military headquarters.