ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected India's "purported closure" of inquiry into accidental firing of a supersonic missile into country on March 9, 2022, reiterating demand for a joint probe into incident. Yesterday, Indian Air Force said government had sacked three officers involved in firing.

"A Court of Inquiry, set up to establish facts of case, including fixing responsibility for incident found that deviation from Standard Operating Procedures by three officers led to accidental firing of missile," it said in a statement. BrahMos missile a nuclear-capable, land-attack cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India was fired earlier this year, prompting Pakistan to seek answers from New Delhi on safety mechanisms in place to prevent accidental launches. In a statement Foreign Officer (FO) spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that it had seen India's announcement of findings regarding incident and decision to terminate services of three officers reportedly found responsible for reckless incident.

"As expected, measures taken by India in aftermath of incident and subsequent findings and punishments handed by so-called internal Court of Inquiry are totally unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate." Spokesperson claimed that India had not only failed to respond to Pakistan's demand for a joint inquiry but also evaded questions raised by country regarding command and control system in place in India, safety and security protocols and reason for its delayed admission of Missile launch. "Systemic loopholes and technical lapses of serious nature in handling of strategic weapons cannot be covered up beneath veneer of individual human error," he said, asserting that if neighbouring had nothing to hide then it must accept Pakistan's demand for a joint probe in "spirit of transparency".

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 25 2022

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.