Inside Pakistan’s 30-Second Brink Amid India’s BrahMos Attack

Rana Sanaullah, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has revealed that Pakistan’s top military leadership had less than a minute to determine whether the BrahMos missile accidentally fired by India carried a nuclear warhead, underscoring the gravity of the 2022 incident.

“When India fired the BrahMos missile at the Nur Khan airbase, Pakistan’s military had only seconds to assess whether it was armed with a nuclear warhead. That’s an extremely dangerous scenario,” Rana Sanaullah said in an interview with a Pakistani news channel.

The missile hit the Nur Khan airbase in Chaklala, Rawalpindi, a critical Pakistan Air Force installation that houses VIP aircraft and Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones.

Sanaullah highlighted Islamabad’s deepest concern: “Pakistan had just 30 to 45 seconds to respond,” he said. “This BrahMos missile came in silently, if it had been nuclear, deciding in half a minute whether it was or wasn’t would’ve been nearly impossible. That shows just how perilous the situation truly was.”

He went further, saying, “I’m not praising them (India) just because the missile didn’t carry nuclear material. The real danger was the potential for misunderstanding, if Pakistan had assumed it was nuclear and responded, or if India had reacted to that response, the world could have been dragged into a nuclear war. The scale of destruction that would have followed is beyond imagination.”

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The BrahMos incident didn’t happen in isolation; tensions had been simmering since April 22, when Pakistan-linked terrorists killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

In retaliation, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, deploying both air- and ground-launched versions of the BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile co-developed with Russia and now produced domestically.

Nur Khan wasn’t the sole target. Indian strikes also hit eleven Pakistani airbases, including Sargodha, Bholari, Jacobabad, Sukkur, Rahim Yar Khan, Rafiqui, and Murid. Satellite imagery released by India revealed shattered runways, damaged hangars, and disabled radar installations, severely disrupting Pakistan’s military infrastructure.

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As missiles streaked across the skies, Sanaullah claimed that one unexpected figure helped defuse the crisis: former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“In a situation like this, if Donald Trump played a role in averting a global catastrophe, then that role deserves an independent evaluation,” said Sanaullah. “And if he truly did help, which he did, then it should be recognised.”

He went on to add, “That’s why the Government of Pakistan, or Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif specifically, has nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

However, India has firmly rejected this narrative. New Delhi maintains that no third party was involved, stating that it was Pakistan’s own Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) who first reached out to initiate de-escalation talks.

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Two weeks later, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed what Islamabad had initially denied: Indian missiles had damaged two critical airbases.

Dar admitted that Pakistan only called for a ceasefire after those strikes, revealing that Saudi Prince Faisal played a key role in mediating between the two nations.

“He asked if he could speak with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to convey Islamabad’s willingness to stop, provided India did the same,” Dar recalled. “I said, ‘Yes, brother, you can.’ He later called me back, saying he had relayed the message to Jaishankar.”

Four Days of Fury, Followed by an Eerie Calm

Operation Sindoor was more than just a missile offensive. India claimed its strikes wiped out camps belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Hizbul Mujahideen, killing over 100 militants. In retaliation, Pakistan launched drones and missiles targeting western India, all of which were intercepted by Indian air defences.

India’s counter-response pushed even deeper into Pakistani territory, intensifying the conflict over the next four days. The turning point came in the early hours of May 10, when Pakistan's Army Chief General Asim Munir called Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at 2:30 am to report that the Nur Khan airbase had been struck.

By dawn, both sides agreed to a ceasefire, and a tense calm took hold. But the region had teetered dangerously close to a catastrophic escalation, one misstep away from disaster.

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