Pakistan has urged a joint investigation and rejected India’s response to the accidently fired supersonic missile that landed on its soil on March 9.
On August 23, three Indian Air Force officers had their employment terminated after a Court of Inquiry (CoI) determined that their violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) resulted in the missile being accidentally fired.
In a statement released late on Wednesday night, the Foreign Office claimed that Pakistan had learned of India’s announcement of the results of an internal CoI into the “incident of firing of a rogue supersonic missile” into its territory and the decision to fire three IAF officers for the allegedly reckless incident.
Pakistan reiterated its demand for a joint investigation and “categorically rejects India’s alleged closure of the highly reckless incident.”
“As anticipated, the actions taken by India in the wake of the occurrence, as well as the conclusions and sentences handed down by the so-called internal Court of Inquiry, are wholly insufficient, weak, and insufficient.”
It said that India had dodged Pakistan’s inquiries about the command and control system in use in India, the safety and security procedures, and the “cause for India’s delayed admission of the missile launch” in addition to failing to answer to Pakistan’s request for a joint investigation.
It stated that severe technical and systematic flaws in the handling of strategic weapons “cannot be hidden beneath the façade of individual human error.”
In the interest of transparency, it demanded that India accept Pakistan’s proposal for a joint investigation.
It went on to say that Pakistan “showed exemplary restraint” on March 9, which was a testament to its systemic maturity and unwavering commitment to peace as a responsible nuclear state, and that the “imprudent Indian action” on March 9 had “jeopardised” the peace and security environment of the entire region.
Pakistan repeated its demand that the Indian government swiftly respond in detail to the questions it posed following the event and grant its request for a joint investigation.
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