Islamabad/New Delhi: In a rare admission, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has confirmed that Islamabad urgently appealed to India for a ceasefire following a series of precision strikes by the Indian Armed Forces on key Pakistani air bases, including Nur Khan and Shorkot, during Operation Sindoor.
The Indian operation, conducted in the early hours between May 6 and 7, was a retaliatory tri-service strike in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, where 26 civilians were brutally killed. According to Dar, India’s offensive caught Pakistan off-guard, hitting critical targets while Islamabad was still preparing its response.
Dar revealed that within 45 minutes of the attack, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan reached out to Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on behalf of Pakistan, seeking an immediate halt to further military action. This intervention underscores the urgency and desperation with which Pakistan sought to de-escalate the situation.
Pakistani Dy PM Ishaq Dar admits
>it went begging to Saudi and US that Pakistan was ready to stop! So Pak surrendered not Bharat..
>Pakistan admits Nur Khan & other bases were hit hard by India.. so Op Sindoor was not Chut Put or a failure or surrender
So let’s put it… pic.twitter.com/8t6XoR2qXK
— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) June 19, 2025
Contradicting earlier narratives from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military spokesmen who claimed Pakistan had “responded forcefully,” Dar’s remarks paint a different picture—one of a state scrambling diplomatically after being strategically outmaneuvered.
Operation Sindoor, described by Indian officials as “precise, limited, and non-escalatory,” targeted nine terror hubs across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In a 25-minute blitz, India deployed SCALP cruise missiles, HAMMER smart bombs, loitering munitions, and other advanced weaponry in a synchronized assault by the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
The strikes reportedly killed between 70 to 100 terrorists and destroyed infrastructure linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen in Bahawalpur and Muridke. Intelligence sources claim the attacks dealt a significant blow to Pakistan’s terror ecosystem.
Prime Minister Sharif, in an earlier televised statement, had reluctantly confirmed Indian missile strikes on Rawalpindi airport, further adding weight to Dar’s latest acknowledgment.
The operation’s name, “Sindoor” (symbolizing marital commitment and feminine dignity), was chosen as a symbolic tribute to the women whose husbands were murdered in front of them during the Pahalgam massacre—reportedly after victims were selected based on their religion.
Through Operation Sindoor, India not only avenged the terror killings but also delivered a strategic and psychological message, asserting its zero-tolerance approach to cross-border terrorism and its preparedness for swift, high-precision military retaliation.
