The Day the Skies Roared: Recalling Pakistan's Response and Defining Questions of the 2019 Airstrikes

February 26th, 2019. Mark the date. It’s when the sky over Pakistan ceased to be just a peaceful expanse of blue, and instead became a stage for a dangerous aerial drama. That morning, the sound was unlike anything ordinary – a guttural growl of jet engines, not thunder, not even distant construction noise, but something undeniably aggressive, militaristic. I can still picture the newsroom at that instant – the abrupt stilling of frantic morning activity, the sudden focused stares at monitors, the way even seasoned journalists paused, mid-sentence. The air itself seemed to thicken as reports, initially disjointed and fragmented, started painting a disturbing picture. Indian fighter jets. Line of Control breached. Strikes at Balakot, within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For me, the news landed with a jolt that stole my breath.

Disbelief warred with a sudden, sharp clarity of purpose – a resolve that wasn’t just mine, I knew instantly, but was rising in hearts across Pakistan. It wasn’t confusion we felt; it was a sharp, collective intake of breath before the measured, determined response that was to come.

The immediate questions weren’t if Pakistan would respond, but how, and with what resolve.

Operation Swift Retort: Pakistan’s Firm Stance and the Balakot Questions

The Indian government, predictably swift, painted a picture of targeted surgical strikes, a “pre-emptive action” against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training camps in Balakot. Their narrative, amplified across global media, cited the Pulwama attack and the imperative to neutralize imminent terror threats. Claims of obliterating JeM’s “largest training camp,” eliminating hundreds of militants, echoed through news cycles, initially creating a global perception of a decisive blow struck.

However, even in those first tense hours, a counter-narrative was solidifying within Pakistan, based on verifiable facts on the ground and a growing wave of international skepticism. The Pakistani military, through ISPR, wasted no time in directly refuting India’s exaggerated claims. The assessment presented to the nation, and subsequently to the world, was starkly different. Yes, airspace had been violated. Yes, ordnance had been dropped near Balakot, specifically in the Jabba area. But the impact? Minimal. Damage confined to trees in a forested, sparsely inhabited area. Tragically, wildlife in the Jabba forests perished. But crucially, and repeatedly emphasized by Pakistani authorities – no infrastructure of militant camps, no mass casualties, and demonstrably, no basis for India’s grand claims of terrorist decimation.

Almost immediately, the veracity of the Indian narrative began to unravel under the weight of mounting, irrefutable evidence. This wasn’t simply a diplomatic back-and-forth; it was a stark confrontation between inflated claims and stark, observable reality.

Beyond Balakot: Evidence, Response, and Pakistan’s Pursuit of Peace After Kashmir Airstrikes

The first major challenge to India’s narrative came from the unforgiving eye of space. High-resolution satellite imagery, the kind that pierces through spin and propaganda, told a dramatically different story. Reuters, analyzing images from Planet Labs in March 2019, revealed a stark truth visible from orbit: no signs of the large-scale destruction India claimed. Defense analysts across the globe concurred – the satellite data presented no evidence of a substantial airstrike impacting infrastructure or inflicting mass casualties. This wasn’t just Pakistani spin; it was satellite-backed, internationally validated visual evidence contradicting India’s core assertion.

Then came the contradictions, slowly but surely, from within the Indian establishment itself. The initial bold claims of 300-500 terrorists eliminated began to fray at the edges as senior Indian figures noticeably shifted their rhetoric. Indian Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa’s statement in June 2019, that “The IAF does not count human casualties, the government does,” hinted at an official discomfort with the early inflated figures. When a senior BJP minister, S.S. Ahluwalia, then stated plainly in March 2019, “No one said that 300 people died. The government didn’t give a figure,” the carefully constructed narrative began to publicly crumble. For many of us watching closely, it was clear – the initial, aggressive casualty claims were unsustainable, detached from reality. The eventual soundbite, “we have nothing to show,” in response to demands for evidence of the claimed terrorist casualties, became almost emblematic of the faltering Indian position.

Perhaps most powerfully, independent, on-the-ground journalism further dismantled the Indian claims. Brave journalists from the BBC, Al Jazeera, and other international outlets ventured to Balakot. They walked the site, spoke to locals, and their reports were consistent and damning for the Indian narrative. No “biggest training camp” in ruins. No mass graves. No evidence of significant casualties. Just damaged trees and the quiet resilience of local villagers who confirmed the attack’s minimal impact and denied the existence of any terror camp. These reports weren’t from sources with an axe to grind. They came from seasoned journalists, professionals who staked their reputations on rigorous methodology and the pursuit of objective truth. The undeniable weight of their investigations lay precisely in their stark contradiction of the narrative being presented by India’s official channels.

Pakistan’s decision to immediately invite international media and diplomats to Balakot was a masterstroke of transparency, reflecting our confidence in the facts on the ground. These delegations saw for themselves: craters, fallen trees, and nothing more. No destroyed infrastructure, no signs of a training camp. The international silence that followed from organizations who might have been expected to corroborate India’s claims spoke volumes. Absence of evidence became, in itself, evidence.

Independent assessments from U.S. intelligence and respected international publications added further weight to the growing skepticism. And then, the definitive word came from outside: a U.S. intelligence report in March 2019 – starkly contradicting India’s casualty claims, finding them baseless. This wasn’t an isolated assessment. Powerful media voices like The New York Times and Foreign Policy, drawing on their own intelligence streams, echoed the same blunt truth: negligible damage. Objectives missed. India’s narrative, increasingly, was unraveling under this weight of independent, informed scrutiny. This wasn’t just a regional dispute anymore; international voices were confirming what Pakistan had asserted from day one: the Balakot airstrikes were far from the surgical, decisive victory India portrayed.

Pakistan’s answer was not whispered in diplomatic corridors; it echoed through the skies: “Operation Swift Retort,” launched barely a day after the incursion, on February 27th. No one could misinterpret the message now being sent. This was no panicked scramble, no act born of haphazard chaos. Pakistan’s move was deliberate, each element meticulously considered, each target strategically chosen. It carried the weight of a nation’s deeply offended honor, a carefully channeled fury that spoke of violated boundaries and a resolve not to be trifled with. We, as a people, were communicating something profound: that Pakistan’s commitment to its own defense was not just policy; it was ingrained, unwavering. In Operation Swift Retort, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) wasn’t simply executing military maneuvers; they were embodying national resolve, targeting specific Indian military installations across Jammu and Kashmir with a precision that spoke volumes – locations in Rajouri and Poonch became the markers of our unwavering stance. PAF jets locked onto brigade headquarters, supply depots, and areas, even Indian Army Battalion Headquarters in Naushera and Krishna Ghati sectors. However, crucially, and deliberately, these strikes were aimed near – not directly at – sensitive locations. This was a calculated demonstration of Pakistan’s aerial prowess, a signal of capability, not an act of uncontrolled aggression or escalation. It was a message, delivered with precision, that Pakistan could respond in kind, but preferred restraint.

During Operation Swift Retort, a tense aerial engagement unfolded. Diplomacy? Dead. Sky? Screaming. Not just roaring, but a full-throated shriek of war. Indian Air Force jets. They didn’t intercept. They hammered in. Target locked. Missiles hot. The air? Thick with it. Chaos. Ferocity. Dogfight. Not just a fight. A brawl. Brutal. No-holds-barred. Survival. You can almost picture the frantic cockpit exchanges, the strain on pilot’s faces, the raw aggression of aerial combat pushed to its limits. In this raw, unforgiving aerial clash, the Pakistan Air Force, with unwavering confidence, declared victory. They claimed – and the evidence seemed to support it – to have taken down two Indian Air Force jets amidst that swirling, brutal confrontation. The fate of the MiG-21 Bison and its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, became starkly real when he ejected into Pakistan-administered Kashmir, finding himself captured on the ground he’d been sent to penetrate. Pakistan has stood firm in its assertion of also downing a Sukhoi Su-30MKI in the thick of that aerial melee, a point of intense Indian denial. But the tangible outcomes – the downed MiG-21, the captured pilot Abhinandan – were brutal, undeniable punctuation marks on a day where the PAF stamped its authority in the most dramatic, and dangerous, way possible: aerial combat.

Force shown. Message sent. But Pakistan’s strategy wasn’t about endless confrontation. De-escalation was the calculated next step. And in a move that echoed around the globe, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was released – not as a concession, but as a “peace gesture.” Masterstroke. It spoke volumes. Strength demonstrated, yet peace offered. Resolve unwavering, yet diplomacy prioritized. Internationally, the message landed resoundingly: Pakistan, confident, secure, and unequivocally committed to regional stability.

Looking back at the events of February 2019, the Balakot airstrikes and Operation Swift Retort serve as a critical case study. For Pakistan, it was a moment where resolve met responsibility, where truth prevailed over inflated claims. The evidence, meticulously gathered and globally validated, exposed the discrepancies in the Indian narrative. And Pakistan’s measured, strategic response, capped by the peace gesture of releasing Wing Commander Abhinandan, demonstrated a nation determined to defend itself while simultaneously striving for a more stable, less volatile region. The skies roared, yes, but in the aftermath, it was Pakistan’s principled and evidence-backed stance that echoed furthest.