India struck Pakistan’s nuclear storage site in Kirana Hills: OSINT expert shares Google Earth Imagery

1 - the impact location of India's strike on Kirana Hills in May 2025.

2 - repaired runways at Sargodha airbase post India's strikes in May 2025,” Symon wrote.

The Kirana Hills are suspected of housing reinforced tunnels and underground bunkers used for storing nuclear warheads -- a claim the Pakistani establishment has always tried to keep under wraps. The possibility that India managed to reach this critical area and leave a visible scar just kilometres from Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division headquarters has rattled Islamabad, even though official denial continues.

Responding to a user asking if the impact indicated a deep strike, Symon clarified: “No, this along with earlier imagery, neither indicate any subterranean impact or penetration, it's just one side of a hill with nothing of value in its immediate vicinity, must've been a warning strike on India's part, tunnels etc are further away & don't show any damage.”

This assessment suggests that while India didn’t target nuclear storage sites directly, it deliberately chose a location close enough to send a powerful signal to Pakistan’s military leadership.

Still, the Indian military has officially denied any strike on Kirana Hills. On May 12, Air Marshal AK Bharti, during a tri-services press briefing, responded to a question on the subject: “We have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there. I did not brief in my briefing yesterday.”

However, multiple OSINT handles and observers believe the scars visible in the satellite images align with videos showing smoke plumes rising from the base of the Kirana Hills on May 7, the day India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 Indian civilians on April 22.

Pakistan’s silence speaks volumes

Interestingly, the Pakistani military and government have maintained a studied silence on the possibility that Kirana Hills -- a cornerstone of their strategic deterrence -- was targeted. This silence is being viewed as an implicit admission that they were caught off guard. Social media platforms were rife with videos showing explosions and smoke columns from the vicinity of Sargodha, yet no official acknowledgment followed.

India Today, in its report claims its OSINT team geolocated one such video near the Kirana Hills, confirming that the strikes came perilously close to Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure.

Nuclear bluff called?

Operation Sindoor reportedly saw India launch precise attacks on 11 military sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), including critical bases such as Nur Khan near Rawalpindi, Rafiqui, Murid, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Chunian, and Sialkot. The attack on Nur Khan airbase -- adjacent to Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division -- was particularly bold, striking at the nerve centre of Pakistan’s nuclear command.

A former US official told The New York Times, “Pakistan’s deepest fear is of its nuclear command authority being decapitated. The missile strike on Nur Khan could have been interpreted... as a warning that India could do just that.”

While Islamabad tried to downplay the scale and precision of the Indian strikes, Symon’s latest satellite findings undermine Pakistan’s attempt to contain the narrative.

Who is Damien Symon?

Operating under the handle @detresfa on X, Symon is a trusted OSINT voice known for exposing Pakistan’s disinformation campaigns. His meticulous work using tools like LANDSAT, KawaSpace, and MazarVision has helped verify Indian strikes and debunk Pakistani propaganda, including doctored images pushed by the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations).

During Operation Sindoor, Symon played a key role in confirming Indian strikes on Pakistani installations and exposing fabricated claims of Indian losses.

While India may officially deny targeting Kirana Hills, the evidence, as presented by independent experts like Symon, strongly suggests a calculated warning strike meant to rattle Pakistan’s military hierarchy. By coming within a hair’s breadth of its nuclear infrastructure, India demonstrated that Pakistan’s deterrence may not be as invulnerable as it believes.