A revelation by Rana Sanaullah, Special Assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has highlighted how dangerously close South Asia came to the brink of nuclear war. During India’s precision military campaign — Operation Sindoor — Sanaullah admitted that Pakistan’s military had only 30 to 45 seconds to assess whether the BrahMos missile launched by India carried a nuclear warhead.
“When India fired BrahMos at Nur Khan airbase, Pakistan’s military had only seconds to determine if it was nuclear. That’s a dangerous situation,” said Sanaullah in a stunning interview, acknowledging the unprecedented panic that gripped Pakistan’s top military brass.
The BrahMos cruise missile — a joint Indo-Russian weapon now largely domestically produced in India — struck the Nur Khan airbase in Chaklala, Rawalpindi, a vital PAF installation housing key assets including VIP aircraft and Turkish-supplied Bayraktar TB2 drones. The high-velocity precision strike reportedly destroyed runways, aircraft hangars, and radar systems, neutralizing the base’s operational capabilities.
This was not the first time India targeted the base — the Indian Air Force’s 20 Squadron had also attacked it during the 1971 war — but the 2025 BrahMos strike marks a new era of asymmetric escalation, leaving Pakistan with little to no response time.
Operation Sindoor: Retaliation to Pahalgam Terror Attack
The Indian military offensive, codenamed Operation Sindoor, was launched in the aftermath of the brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam, J&K, where 26 Indian and foreign tourists were killed by terrorists linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad — both Pakistan-backed terror groups.
India responded with a swift, multilayered offensive targeting over a dozen terror camps and military installations across Pakistan. Among the high-value targets were Nur Khan, PAF Sargodha, Bholari, Jacobabad, Sukkur, and Rahim Yar Khan — all of which reportedly suffered damage, according to satellite imagery released by Indian defence agencies.
Indian forces claimed to have killed over 100 terrorists, destroyed active camps of LeT, JeM, and Hizbul Mujahideen, and incapacitated command and control infrastructure used to launch attacks into Kashmir.
Sanaullah’s admission of near-catastrophic miscalculation reveals the extent of Pakistan’s vulnerabilities. He conceded that the Indian strike forced Pakistan into a “panic mode”, as military command had to determine within seconds whether India had launched a nuclear-capable missile.
“I’m not saying India did good by not using a nuclear warhead. But such confusion could have sparked a global war,” he said. This comment directly contradicts years of bravado from Rawalpindi, which has often projected nuclear capability as a deterrent shield against Indian retaliation. The revelation confirms that India’s rapid, precise, and conventional first-strike capability has outpaced Pakistan’s nuclear response chain, creating a dangerous imbalance.
Perhaps the most curious revelation came when Sanaullah credited former US President Donald Trump with “saving the world” by mediating an emergency ceasefire during the height of Operation Sindoor.
“There could have been an atomic war… If Donald Trump played a role and saved the world from disaster, then that role must be independently evaluated and appreciated,” he stated, even claiming Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This claim, however, is being firmly rejected by Indian officials, who maintain that it was Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) who made the first contact to seek de-escalation. India has reiterated its long-standing policy of rejecting third-party mediation, especially in matters of national security involving Pakistan.
Sanaullah’s statement comes just two weeks after Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar broke rank with previous denials and confirmed that India had indeed attacked two major airbases, causing significant damage — a statement that flew in the face of the Pakistani military’s earlier dismissals as “fabrications” by Indian media.
India’s use of air and ground-based BrahMos missiles proved decisive, not just tactically but psychologically, exposing how deeply unprepared Pakistan was for modern, high-speed warfare. In response to the Indian strikes, Pakistan attempted retaliatory action by launching missiles and drones at military targets in western India. However, Indian air defences successfully intercepted all incoming threats, including drones aimed at Rajasthan and Gujarat installations.
Within four days, both nations agreed to a ceasefire, reportedly under immense pressure from international players — though India maintains it acted purely out of strategic prudence after achieving its objectives.
The Nur Khan strike and Sanaullah’s confession are not just isolated headlines. They represent a major geopolitical flashpoint that exposed Pakistan’s declining strategic deterrence and India’s growing conventional supremacy.
India’s rapid precision strike capability, bolstered by platforms like BrahMos, Rafale jets, and advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) satellites, has shifted the balance in New Delhi’s favour. Pakistan’s nuclear bluff was tested — and, for now, it blinked.
In light of this, calls for an independent investigation into Trump’s alleged role, and Pakistan’s own internal assessment of its rapid response systems, are growing louder. But the bigger story is clear: South Asia was 30 seconds away from nuclear war, and only India’s strategic restraint and technological superiority prevented a disaster.
