Following the inadvertent incident involving release of a missile that landed in Pakistan, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday assured the members of Rajya Sabha that country’s “safety procedures and the protocols are of the highest order.’’ These protocols are reviewed from time to time.
In wake of the incident, the minister told the Upper House that “a review of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for maintenance, operations, and inspections is being conducted in the wake of this incident.”
In his statement he also stated that India’s missile system is “very reliable and safe” and in case any shortcoming is found, the same would be rectified immediately.
Sharing details of the incident that took place last week, the minister informed the House that the incident took place during routine maintenance and inspection, when a missile was accidentally released. The time was 7 pm when the missile that was released accidentally veered off towards Pakistan and landed in its territory.
Expressing his regret the minister also said that a formal high-level inquiry has been ordered by the government into the accident in which no one was hurt.
The formal inquiry is expected to determine the exact cause of the said accident, the minister told the Upper House, and the minister said that the armed forces which handle such systems are well trained and disciplined and experienced.
Background
On Saturday, Pakistan had demanded a joint probe into the incident of the accidental firing. The joint probe was being sought to “accurately establish’’ the facts in the matter and it stated that the internal court of enquiry ordered by India was not enough.
As has been reported in Financial Express Online earlier, on March 11, India in a statement attributed the unheard of incident to a technical malfunction during routine maintenance. However on the same day, Pakistan had summoned India’s Charge d’Affaires (CDA) and lodged a strong protest over the “unprovoked violation of its airspace by a supersonic flying object which was of Indian origin.”
Was it a BrahMos Missile?
There is no official confirmation of the super-sonic flying object as BrahMos missile. However, based on the specifications that were put out by Pakistan, according to officials it could have been BrahMos supersonic cruise missile without a warhead.
“Since the two countries have nuclear arms, such accidents could cause a lot of problems and there needs to be stringent SOPs in place,” observed a military expert who wished to remain anonymous.
In a statement last week, Pakistan had said that the supersonic flying object had entered its territory from Suratgarh in Rajasthan and fell to the ground near Mian Chunnu city around 6.50 pm PST.