‘Conflict with Pakistan was always conventional, no nuclear signaling’: Vikram Misri to Parliamentary Panel

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri told a parliamentary committee on Monday that India’s conflict with Pakistan was was always in the conventional domain and there was “no nuclear signaling” by the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

According to sources cited in a PTI news agency report, Vikram Misri, who led the Centre’s briefing on India’s “Operation Sindoor” on Monday, reiterated that the decision to arrive at a ceasefire understanding was reached at a bilateral level as panel members raised repeated assertions by the United States on its role in stopping the four day-long military conflict.

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The DGMOs of the two countries reached an understanding on halting all military actions on May 10.

Misri on Chinese weapons
The diplomat also asserted that Pakistan’s use of Chinese-made weapon platforms “did not matter” as the Indian armed forces managed to “hammer” the neighbouring country’s air bases while retaliating to Pakistan’s escalatory attempts to target Indian military installations and civilian areas, the above-mentioned sources said.

The meeting of Parliament’s Standing Committee on External Affairs, chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, was attended by a number of lawmakers, including the TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee, the Congress’ Rajeev Shukla and Deepender Hooda, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and the BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi and Arun Govil.

Earlier, India’s armed forces rejected reports of India hitting nuclear facilities at Kirana hills using loitering and penetrating munitions.

Director General of Air Operations, Air Marshal AK Bharti, confirmed during a press conference that the Indian armed forces did not target the nuclear facility at Kirana Hills. “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation. We did not know about it. And we have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.

Vikram Misri’s clarification of “no nuclear signaling” assumes significance as some Pakistani ministers and officials repeatedly pointed out to the country’s nuclear arsenal as tensions ran high before the four-day conflict.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Russia, Muhammad Khalid Jamali, had said in an interview that his country will use its “full spectrum of power, both conventional and nuclear”, if attacked by India over the Pahalgam terror attack.