Pakistan targeted Delhi with high-speed missile during Operation Sindoor: Discovery documentary

Pakistan's last major offensive, which targeted New Delhi with a high-speed missile 71 hours into Operation Sindoor, triggering India's “final retaliatory attack”, according to a Discovery docuseries, Declassified: Operation Sindoor. India successfully intercepted the attack using the Barak-8 surface-to-air missile system at Sirsa, Haryana. The Documentary was, released on August 15, 2026, offers a detailed account of the May 2025 standoff between India and Pakistan.

“At about 1:30 or 1:45, one high-speed missile was launched by Pakistan, aimed at Delhi, which was intercepted at Sirsa in Haryana”, said national security analyst Nitin Gokhale. The Ministry of Defence previously said that the attack targeted Indian Air Force bases and other military installations, but did not publicly identify New Delhi as a target.

The attack triggered an intense assault from India, the first major attack targeting 11 Pakistani airbases. “This time the full responsibility was given to the Air Force to launch the BrahMos Cruise Missiles,” said Gokhale. The first phase of the attack targeted Rafiqui, Sukkur, Rahim Yar Khan and Nur Khan airbases, while the second wave targeted Sargodha, Bholari and Jacobabad.

“The intent was to keep it calibrated and measured and drive home a message that, look, we can hit you at will, and you have no answer to it,” said Air Marshal Awadesh Bharti, SYSM, AVSM, VM. Senior officers claimed that the attack paralysed Pakistan’s air defence mechanisms, including runways, hangars and parked aircraft. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also admitted the damage, speaking at the Pakistan-Türkiye-Azerbaijan summit in Lachin, Azerbaijan, in late May 2025.

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“We engaged them on a front of almost 1,200 kilometres, almost 200 kilometres deep inside his territory,” Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, PVSM, AVSM, said. “Things were really happening the way we wanted it to… All our weapons were reaching the correct places.” The assault was led by high-speed BrahMos-A cruise missiles and prompted Pakistani military leadership to seek an immediate halt to the conflict.

Pakistani Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) reached out through the established military hotline by the next morning. Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir also contacted US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He requested Washington's urgent intervention to halt the rapidly escalating Indian offensive. Marco Rubio immediately called India's External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, conveying Pakistan’s desperate message that they wanted the fighting to stop.

Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, SYSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, India’s DGMO during Operation Sindoor, said that he received a message at around 9 am local time that Pakistan's DGMO wanted to speak. He said the MEA also told him that the Pakistanis were “frantically trying to call.”

"Sir, having hit so many BrahMos missiles at us, you should now be satisfied, and we can bring this to a stop,” said Pakistan's DGMO Maj Gen Kashif Abdullah according to Ghai's account. “Once they asked, and repeatedly asked, saying, ‘Now it’s enough, you’ve done enough damage, now let’s have a ceasefire,’ we conceded to their request,” India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said. “We were also very clear that we don't have to linger on it.” At around 5.30 pm, it was agreed that both sides would cease hostilities.