Pakistan has, for the first time, formally acknowledged that Indian strikes during Operation Sindoor in May caused damage to its Nur Khan airbase, marking a significant shift from its earlier stance of downplaying or denying the impact of the attack. The admission came from Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar during a year-end press briefing on December 27, where he confirmed that Indian forces had launched a large-scale drone operation targeting Pakistani military installations. According to Dar, more than 80 drones were sent across the border within a span of 36 hours, and although most were intercepted, one managed to strike a military facility, resulting in damage and injuries to personnel stationed there.
Dar stated that Pakistan’s air defence systems were able to neutralise 79 of the drones, but one drone breached defences and caused damage at the Nur Khan airbase, a strategically critical installation located in Rawalpindi’s Chaklala area near Pakistan’s military headquarters and close to the capital. While he sought to portray the overall impact as limited, his remarks marked the first official acknowledgment that the Indian operation had successfully hit a sensitive military target. This admission stood in contrast to Pakistan’s earlier public narrative, which had largely dismissed reports of significant damage or casualties resulting from the Indian strikes.
The foreign minister revealed that the situation prompted an emergency meeting of Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership on the night of May 9, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. During the meeting, the leadership assessed the scale of the attacks and discussed response options. Dar described India’s strike on Nur Khan in the early hours of May 10 as a “mistake,” underscoring how seriously Islamabad viewed the incident given the airbase’s strategic importance. His comments indicated that the strike had triggered heightened concern within Pakistan’s security establishment.
India had launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 in response to a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, in which 26 civilians were killed. The operation initially targeted nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir before expanding to include Pakistani military infrastructure. Indian assessments later indicated that as many as 11 Pakistani air bases were struck, including facilities in Sargodha, Rafiqui, Jacobabad and Muridke, suggesting a far broader operation than Pakistan had publicly acknowledged at the time.
Reacting to Dar’s statement, retired Indian Army Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon questioned the credibility of Pakistan’s claim that only minor damage and injuries had occurred. Citing reports from Pakistani media, he noted that the awarding of 138 gallantry medals after the conflict suggested far higher casualties than Islamabad was admitting. According to him, such numbers would imply that several hundred personnel may have been killed or injured. He also referred to video footage circulating online, allegedly filmed by civilians, which showed the Nur Khan airbase engulfed in flames following the strike.
Pakistan’s leadership had previously made indirect references to the attack. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had earlier disclosed that Army Chief General Asim Munir informed him of the strike on Nur Khan during the night of May 9–10. In July, Sharif’s adviser Rana Sanaullah added that Pakistan had only 30 to 45 seconds to determine whether an incoming missile aimed at the base carried a nuclear warhead, underscoring how close the situation came to a catastrophic escalation.
Dar also claimed that Pakistan did not seek third-party mediation during the conflict but said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan reached out to Islamabad during the crisis. According to him, their diplomatic engagement eventually helped facilitate the ceasefire that came into effect on May 10, bringing an end to four days of intense military confrontation.
The episode highlighted just how quickly tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours can escalate and how narrowly a larger conflict may have been avoided. Pakistan’s acknowledgment of damage at Nur Khan, coming months after the incident, underscores the seriousness of India’s strikes and marks a rare moment of public admission in an otherwise tightly controlled narrative surrounding the confrontation.
