Indian missile 'mistakenly' falls in Pakistan, government orders probe

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, March 11  

The Government of India has taken a ‘serious view’ of the ‘accidental firing’ of a missile and ordered a high-level court of inquiry into the incident, the Defence Ministry said on Friday evening.

“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,” a statement said.

“On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile,” the Ministry of Defence said.

Last night, in a sensational claim, Pakistan alleged that an Indian supersonic missile landed some 124 km inside its territory.

The missile did not have a warhead. The Director-General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar, at a press conference in Islamabad, said that “it was for India to explain what has happened”.

The missile was fired from near Sirsa in southerly direction towards the Mahajan field firing ranges. However, it veered westwards and landed at Mian Channu, some 124 km inside Pakistan, the Pakistan Army officer claimed.

At the same press conference, Air Vice-Marshal Tariq Zia said the missile was noticed at an altitude of 40,000 feet and was travelling at 2.5 Mach – that is 3,000 km per hour.