Indian Army Thwarts Pakistani Drone and Missile Attack on Golden Temple Following Operation Sindoor

Pakistan tried to attack the Golden Temple of Amritsar with missiles and drones in the night of May 7-8, as a counter-attack for India's attack on nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

This was revealed on Monday by Major General Kartik C Seshadri, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 15th Infantry Division.

The top Indian Army officer said that Pakistan did not have legitimate military objectives and was hence likely to target civilian and religious sites in India.

"Given the fact that the Pak Army has no legitimate targets, we had expected them to attack Indian military facilities, civilian targets which include religious sites," he said in an interview with ANI. "Of these, Golden Temple seemed to be the most prominent one," he continued.

To this, Major General Seshadri replied, "We deployed additional modern air defence assets to provide a comprehensive air defence umbrella cover to Golden Temple."

The attack came in the wee hours of May 8, when Pakistan deployed a major aerial offensive with the help of drones and long-range missiles in the dead of night. On 8th May early morning, under cover of darkness, Pakistan launched a huge air attack with unmanned aerial weapons, mainly drones and long-range missiles," he said. He also added that the Indian Army was adequately prepared, successfully intercepting and neutralising all the incoming threats. We were totally ready as we had expected this, and our fearlessheart and vigilant army air defence gunners foiled the Pakistan Army's malevolent plans and destroyed all drones and missiles aimed at the Golden Temple. Thus, not even a scratch dared to come on our sacred Golden Temple," the officer underscored.

Further, the Indian Army carried out a demonstration to showcase the efficacy of its air defence capabilities—like the AKASH missile system and L-70 Air Defence Guns—to intercept and destroy Pakistani drones and missiles and protect the Golden Temple as well as the important cities of Punjab.

A defence ministry statement previously confirmed that some Indian cities and military bases were hit by the overnight attack, including Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, and Bhuj. There were reports of explosions throughout Kashmir.

"These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter-UAS Grid and Air Defence systems," the statement continued.

These strikes came in retaliation for India's Operation Sindoor, a unified military offensive against nine terror camps spread throughout Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The operation had been initiated as a retaliation to the April 22 terrorist strike in Pahalgam, in which 26 civilians were killed.