Indian Navy 'almost' struck Pakistan during Operation Sindoor; BrahMos had zeroed in on Karachi harbor: Report

Photo for representational purpose only.

The Indian Navy had ‘almost’ launched an attack against key military installations in Pakistan at the peak of military hostilities following Operation Sindoor, a media report said on Friday.

The Indian Navy was on a ‘hot-standby’ to strike Karachi harbour as well as Pakistan Navy’s warships and submarines, an NDTV report said. However, while the Navy was ready for the attack, the go-ahead never came.

The report also mentioned that had India launched an all-out naval attack against Pakistan, BrahMos missiles would have been launched to strike the ships docked at Karachi harbour. Another blueprint of the attack strategy included launching land-attack cruise missiles by the Indian Navy’s submarines, the report further said.

The report further said that while the Navy never launched a direct attack, some naval weapons were indeed used after deployment at the land bases to strike the enemy targets such as terror camps. However, the report didn’t specify which naval weapons were deployed for the strike against Pakistan.

India’s sheer dominance in the Arabian Sea was evident during this period as none of the Pakistan Navy’s ships ventured out. Sometime after Indian forces paused the military offensive, Pakistan had sent a surveillance plane, the NDTV report said. But as soon as Indian Navy spotted the enemy aircraft on radar, a MiG-29K was sent for tracking. This forced Pakistani plane to retract.

Previously, Vice Admiral AN Pramod had also confirmed that that Karachi was one of the target options for the Navy. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who had visited INS Vikrant last month, had also given a hint into what India's future escalation matrix is going to be. Addressing the troops, Singh had said that in case Pakistan crosses the red line, Indian Navy will 'open first'.