Air Force to conduct war exercises on international border with Pakistan

The exercise will begin at 9.30 pm on Wednesday and will end after about five and a half hours, during which flights taking off or landing at airports near the border will be suspended.

The NOTAM and war games see India using its military might amid continued tensions with Pakistan over the terror attack in Pahalgam last month.

Civil defence preparedness for a military attack by another nation has not been seen since the 1971 war with Pakistan. The exercise will be held at around 300 locations, including the national capital Delhi.

A ‘civil defense’ district refers to a geographic area that contains armed forces facilities or important economic or public infrastructure, such as an oil refinery or nuclear plant.

As speculation mounts about Delhi’s military response, hours ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval – for the second time in as many days.

After the attack, the Prime Minister has held several meetings with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Shri Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Last week, in one such meeting, PM Modi reportedly gave the army ‘complete freedom’ to plan and execute an armed response to the Pahalgam terror incident.

The name of Pakistan’s war games was a subtle hint; Islamabad reacted angrily to Delhi’s suspension of the IWT and the shutdown of water supply to Pakistani farms, calling it an “act of war”.

India, meanwhile, has test-fired an indigenously developed underwater mine with advanced capabilities, including sensors that can detect acoustic, magnetic, and pressure signatures produced by ships.

India also tested missiles last month – five days after Pahalgam.

Twenty-six people, mostly civilians, were killed by four militants affiliated with The Resistance Front, a proxy for the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba.