Nur Khan hit

December 29, 2025

Pakistan’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar, just dropped a rare and pretty awkward admission at a year-end press briefing, saying that India’s military action during Operation Sindoor actually hit one of Pakistan’s key air force bases and caused some damage and injuries. He openly confirmed that the Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi’s Chaklala area was struck by Indian drones and that the strike wasn’t completely stopped by Pakistan’s defenses.

Dar explained that over a period of about 36 hours, India sent what he claimed were roughly 80 drones into Pakistani territory, and Pakistan’s forces intercepted 79 of them. But one drone, according to him, managed to hit a military installation at Nur Khan Air Base and injured personnel stationed there. He framed it as India having “made the mistake” of launching that attack in the early hours of May 10.

This is significant because Pakistan has usually denied or downplayed the scale of damage from Indian strikes since Operation Sindoor unfolded back in May, when tensions spiked after a terror attack in Pahalgam killed 26 civilians. India responded with a coordinated military operation that included striking terror camps and, as India says, precision hits on multiple Pakistani military targets. What’s new here is that a senior Pakistani official is acknowledging damage to one of its core military installations.
Dar also said Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, met on the night of May 9 to figure out how to react as the situation was escalating. He reiterated that India’s actions during the operation were strategic and targeted Pakistan’s military infrastructure.

Satellite imagery from around that time independently showed noticeable damage at multiple Pakistani air bases, including Nur Khan, though Pakistan’s narrative over what exactly happened has shifted over time. There had already been earlier admissions by Pakistani leaders like Sharif that missiles hit Nur Khan and other sites, but Dar’s comments mark an unusually straightforward acknowledgment that India’s precision strikes did more than Pakistan had publicly admitted before.