Indian warships have conducted multiple anti-ship firings in the Arabian Sea, showcasing their long-range precision strike capabilities amid heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack.
The navy on Sunday asserted it was “combat-ready… anytime, anywhere, anyhow”.
“Indian Navy ships undertook successful multiple anti-ship firings to revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems, and crew for long-range precision offensive strike,” the navy said in a post on X on Sunday.
The post said: “Indian Navy stands combat-ready, credible, and future-ready in safeguarding the nation’s maritime interests Anytime Anywhere Anyhow.”
The navy shared visuals of BrahMos anti-ship and anti-surface cruise missiles being fired from warships in the middle of the sea.
Sources said the warships involved included Kolkata-class destroyers and Nilgiri and Krivak-class frigates. The navy’s tankers, its latest aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and its maritime patrol aircraft P-8Is too remain deployed in the Arabian Sea.
On Thursday, the navy’s indigenous guided missile destroyer, INS Surat, successfully test-fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile in the Arabian Sea.
In the 1971 war, the navy had blockaded Karachi port and bombed the city.
Pakistan too has issued a notification declaring it would carry out missile firings in the Arabian Sea.
India’s army had on Saturday released a video message underscoring its own operational readiness. The army said it remained “fearless, relentless, unstoppable”.
“No terrain too tough, no mission too far, operationally ready always,” it said.
The air force too launched a large-scale war drill, Aakraman, on Thursday, focusing on its offensive capabilities.
Shikara owners fish near the parked boats on the banks of the Dal Lake, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, in Srinagar PTI
The army chief, General Upendra Dwivedi, visited Kashmir on Friday, three days after the Pahalgam attack, to review the security situation.
The army has accused Pakistan of repeated ceasefire violations across the Line of Control since the Pahalgam attack, adding that the Indian side has retaliated effectively. No casualties have been reported in the exchanges of fire.
Sources said India was considering a range of retaliatory military options against Pakistan, which it accuses of having “linkages” to the Pahalgam massacre. The terror strike has sparked tit-for-tat diplomatic measures and raised fears of another military escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Army veterans have expressed support for strong retaliatory action against Pakistan, with the former army chief, General (retd) Manoj Mukund Naravane, calling for a multi-pronged response.
“…And there should be no doubt that there will be a response. Let them (Pakistan) be on tenterhooks for a while till they start jumping at shadows,” Naravane has written in The Print.
“Meanwhile, we must build up global support through political, diplomatic and military channels of communication, for our retaliatory measures for when (not if) it happens, which could be in multiple domains, both kinetic and non-kinetic…. India can always borrow from the US or Israeli playbook and draw support from international law which allows for such responses.”
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday expressed his willingness to participate in a “neutral, transparent and credible” investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack.
There has so far been no response from the Indian government to Sharif’s proposal.
Sources in the security establishment said this was not the first time Pakistan had expressed willingness to help investigate a terror attack in India with suspected cross-border connections.
After the 2016 attack on the Pathankot airbase bythe Jaish-e-Mohammed, which left eight people dead, Pakistan had sent a jointinvestigation team that included members of its spyagency ISI.
Its mission was to gather, review and document evidence, and to interview key witnesses and victims alongside the National Investigation Agency (NIA). However, Islamabad later failed to share any evidence with India, nor did it allow an NIA team to visit Pakistan.
India had in the past sent to Pakistan judicial requests and detailed dossiers of terrorists relating to various attacks such as Mumbai 26/11, Pulwama and Uri. But Pakistan never acted on the evidence, Indian sources said.