On Friday, the Indian Air Force(IAF) disclosed the details to the Delhi High Court behind the incident of the accidental discharge of the Brahmos missile(a medium range supersonic cruise missile) which landed in Pakistan. They stated the reason was the combat connectors which were connected to the circuit box which resulted in the misfiring of the Brahmos missile.
Indian Air Force (IAF) on the incident
This is the first time the Indian Air Force(IAF) revealed the reason behind the incident after a complaint was lodged by the Pakistan government the next day to New Delhi.
The IAF stated that the convoy commander of the road convoy was scheduled to proceed towards the place by taking an inspection but ‘failed to ensure safe transit of convoy by not ensuring disconnection of combat connectors of all missiles loaded” on the mobile autonomous launcher before the movement’.
The IAF further stated and described that the incident not only created tensions between India and Pakistan but also led them to dismiss their three officers under the ‘President pleasure’ clause which states that every person in the defence or civil service of the Union holds office during the pleasure of the President. The decision was not a light one and this type of decision has not been taken for over two decades.
Wing Commander gives his statement to the Delhi High Court
Wing Commander Upendra Nath Pathak who is also the Deputy Judge Advocate General replied back to the Delhi High Court and stated that ‘such a decision has been taken in the IAF after 23 years as facts and circumstances of the case warranted such action’.
The IAF stated that ‘Likewise, it was also decided that initiation of action under Section 19 of the Air Force Act, 1950, read with Rule 16 of the Air Force Rules, 1969, by issuing a showcause notice for dismissal/removal from the service would bring the sensitive and secret issues in full public domain which would be prejudicial to the security interests of the state’.
What happened in March 2022?
On March 2022, India unknowinly fired their Brahmos missile from Sirsa, Haryana which crash landed in the Mian Channu ,Khannewal District of Punjab, Pakistan. The incident was first picked up by the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) Air Defence Operation Centre which is located near Quetta in the Balochistan Province of Pakistan.
The Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar stated that ‘From its initial course, the object suddenly manoeuvred towards Pakistani territory and violated Pakistan’s air space, ultimately falling near Mian Channu at 6:50 pm’.
However, no civilian casualties were recorded but it caused some damage to the civilian properties. The Brahmos missile which claimed to be originated from Sirsa, Haryana entered the Pakistan Air Space from Suratgarh city of Sri Ganganagar district in Rajathan. Air Marshall Tariq Zia of the Pakistan Air Force(PAF) stated that the missile flew inside the Pakistan territory in three minutes and 44 seconds.
Pakistan strongly criticised India after the incident and warned them that such incidents should not occur in the near future.
The participants behind the Brahmos Missile misfiring incident
After the incident, the IAF set up a Court of Inquiry(CoI) in which they found 16 witnesses to the incident which included Wing Commander Abhinav Sharma, Group Captain Saurabh Gupta, Squadron Leader Pranjal Singh, and also the other members of the Combat Team responsible for ‘various acts of negligence and misconduct’ which led to the misfiring of the Brahmos missile.
Meanwhile, Wing Commander Abhinav Sharma stated and blamed Air Commodore Joy Thomas Kurien as responsible one for the incident and he also brushed off his allegations as ‘conjectures, surmises, bald, baseless and without any substantiating evidence’.
The IAF dismissed the allegations of Sharma and stated that Air Commodore JT Kurien ‘was in no position to postpone to avoid the firing of the missile and he is not responsible for the operations undertaken by the unit’.
The incident led to an huge and enormous loss of ₹ 25 million for the government.