The IAF is conducting the mandatory court of inquiry into the accidentalfiring of a Brahmos missile which crashed into Pakistan and a few officersincluding a Group Captain may be held responsible. An Air Vice Marshal isheading the investigation.
Giving this information here on Wednesday, sources, however, said these arethe initial pointers and the final result of the court of inquiry will takesome more days. The accident took place on March 9 when the supersoniccruise missile fired from a base near Sirsa crashed into Mian Channu inPakistan after travelling a distance of nearly 140 kms. However, therewere no casualties on the ground and the Indian government said it hadviewed it seriously “deeply regretted it.”
In fact, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh gave a statement in Parliament onMarch 15 narrating the sequence of events. In this backdrop, the Air ViceMarshal was appointed to conduct the inquiry, sources said adding he isvery experienced and highly qualified.
In his statement in Parliament, Rajnath had said “A missile wasunfortunately accidentally launched on March 9. The incident occurredduring a routine inspection. We later came to know that it had landed inPakistan.”
Informing Parliament that a high level probe was initiated, the defenceminister assured the members the missile system is trustworthy and thearmed forces are fully competent to handle such systems.
He said during inspection. During routine maintenance and inspection, amissile was accidentally released at around 7 p.m.
It was later learnt that the missile had landed inside the territory ofPakistan.
“While this incident is regretted, we are relieved that nobody was hurt dueto the accident. I would like to inform the august House that Governmenthas taken serious note of the incident.
A formal high level inquiry has been ordered. The inquiry would determinethe exact cause of the said accident. I would also like to state that areview of the Standard Operating Procedures for operations, maintenance andinspections is being conducted in the wake of this incident. We attachhighest priority to safety and security of our weapon systems. If anyshortcoming is found, the same would be immediately rectified.
I can assure the House that the missile system is very reliable & safe.Moreover, our safety procedures and protocols are of the highest order andare reviewed from time to time. Our Armed Forces are well-trained anddisciplined and are well experienced in handling such systems,” he said.
Read Top Stories
Pakistan had lodged a strong protest against the reported accidental firingof the missile and summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad.
It also called for a joint probe and China backed it. However, the US saidit was accident and the Indian defence ministry had given the details. “Wehave no indication, as you also heard from our Indian partners, that thisincident was anything other than an accident,” State Departmentspokesperson Ned Price had said..
China’s Foreign Ministry, responding to a question from Pakistani mediaabout the incident, said it “called on relevant countries to have dialogueand communication as soon as possible and launch a thorough investigationinto this incident, strengthen information–sharing and establish anotification mechanism in time to ensure the non-recurrence of suchincidents and prevent miscalculation.”
Pakistan termed the Indian defence ministry statement regretting theaccident as a “simplistic explanation” while calling for a joint probe.
Major General Babar Iftikhar, the Director-General of the Inter-Service
Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan, had claimed that an unarmed projectilelaunched from India entered the Pakistani airspace travelling 124 km andfell near Mian Channu. No loss of life was reported.
Noting that the missile that landed in Pakistan was fired “accidentally”due to a technical malfunction, the Indian defence ministry had said it hadalso ordered a Court of Enquiry into the incident.