On the night of May 9, just hours before US President Donald Trump announced the surprise ceasefire between India and Pakistan, New Delhi attacked Pakistan’s major operational air bases in a series of audacious strikes, which went much further than just symbolic strikes and were meant to inflict actual pain on the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).
On that fateful night, the Indian Air Force claims it targeted as many as 11 PAF air bases, inflicting sustained and long-term damage, knocking out 20 percent of PAF’s infrastructure.
Initially dismissed by Pakistan as exaggerated, as the dust settles on the claims and counterclaims made by India and Pakistan, the satellite imagery appears to support India’s bold claims. The international media, albeit belatedly, is now acknowledging the severe damage New Delhi inflicted on Islamabad on the last night of fighting.
This, perhaps, explains the sudden involvement of the US in the conflict. The Trump administration initially adopted a hands-off approach, which changed on the night of May 9, as Islamabad found almost all its major operational air bases under sustained fire from India.
As Pakistan found itself increasingly cornered, the US feared the worst. Washington thought that the four-day-old conflict was escalating dangerously towards a full-blown war, which, if not navigated calmly, could even escalate into a nuclear Armageddon.
May 9: India’s Night Of ‘Fire And Fury’
The Indian Air Force (IAF) claimed that it targeted 11 PAF air bases in precision strikes on the night of May 9.
These PAF air bases were spread across the length and breadth of the country, with one air base –Bholari- over 270 km away from the India-Pakistan International Border (IB).
The strikes covered air bases under all three Pakistan Air Commands – the Northern Air Command, the Central Air Command, and the Southern Air Command.
It covered air bases in Rawalpindi, close to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and critical for logistics, VIP transport, strategic operations, and aviator training, as well as air bases like Sargodha, the headquarters of the Central Air Command, home to the PAF’s best fighter jets and pilots, and dangerously close (20 km) to the Kirana hills, the site that reportedly stores Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
The message was clear: all PAF air bases, regardless of their strategic, vital, or sensitive nature, are vulnerable.
The IAF named the air bases it attacked: Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Jacobabad, Sukkur, Bholari, and Shorkot.
Additional hits were reported on radar installations in Pasrur and Sialkot, both of which are part of Pakistan’s centralized air defense network.
India reported damage to PAF runways, hangars, radars, air defense units, and fighter aircraft at these bases.
India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) claimed on May 14 that these strikes targeted ammunition depots and airbases, including Sargodha and Bholari, where F-16 and JF-17 fighter jets were stationed.
It further claimed that 50 individuals, including Squadron Leader Usman Yusuf and four airmen, were killed in the bombing of Bholari Airbase, and several Pakistani fighter jets were also destroyed.
“As a result, nearly 20 percent of Pakistan’s air force infrastructure was destroyed,” the PIB report said.
The New York Times And Washington Post Authenticate India’s Claims
The claims made by the IAF are also validated by the international media.
On May 14, The New York Times published a detailed report, complete with ‘before and after’ HD images of PAF air bases India attacked on the night of May 9.
“The four-day military clash between India and Pakistan was the most expansive fighting in half a century between the two nuclear-armed countries. As both sides used drones and missiles to test each other’s air defenses and hit military facilities, they claimed to inflict severe damage,” the NYT report said.
Satellite imagery indicates that while the attacks were widespread, the damage was far more contained and “appeared mostly inflicted by India on Pakistani facilities.”
“Where India appears to have had a clear edge is in its targeting of Pakistan’s military facilities and airfields, as the latter stretch of fighting shifted from symbolic strikes and shows of force to attacks on each other’s defense capabilities.
“High-resolution satellite imagery, from before and after the strikes, shows clear damage to Pakistan’s facilities by Indian attacks, if limited and precise in nature,” it said.
Further, the report validates India’s claims that at Bholari, an aircraft hangar was destroyed with a precision attack.
Runways were also damaged. The NYT reported that on May 10, Pakistan issued a notice for the Rahim Yar Khan air base stating that the runway was not operational.
It also said that similar evidence for Pakistani claims is lacking.
“Satellite images of the sites Pakistan claimed to have hit are limited, and so far do not clearly show damage caused by Pakistani strikes even at bases where there was corroborating evidence of some military action.”
India’s claims were also supported by the latest Washington Post report.
“The review of more than two dozen satellite images and aftermath videos found that the strikes heavily damaged three hangars, two runways and a pair of mobile buildings used by the air force. Some of the sites hit by India were as deep as 100 miles inside the country,” it said.
“At the Pakistani air force’s Bholari and Shahbaz air bases, satellite imagery showed severe damage to buildings used as aircraft hangars. A large hole nearly 60 feet wide is visible in the roof of a hangar at Bholari.”
The report states that a hole over 100 feet wide can be observed in the hangar at Shahbaz Air Base.
The report further notes damage to a hangar at Sukkur Airport and large craters in runways at Mushaf Air Base and Sheikh Zayed International Airport.
“High-profile targets were hit in precision strikes with the aim of severely degrading Pakistan’s offensive and defensive air capabilities,” William Goodhind, a geospatial analyst at Contested Ground, a research project that uses satellite imagery to track armed conflict, told the Washington Post.
These are the most significant air strikes India has launched on Pakistan since the 1971 war. Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes were either shot down by Indian air defense units or had very little damage.
The strikes sent a stern message to Pakistan that all air bases within Pakistan are in the striking range of precision Indian drones and missiles.
While it could be challenging to quantify India’s claims that they have destroyed “nearly 20 percent” of Pakistan’s Air Force infrastructure, the mounting evidence does suggest that the PAF took a severe battering on that fateful night of May 9.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
