Marka-e-Haq, particularly its Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos component on May 6-10 last year, has reshaped perceptions of military balance in South Asia altogether.
It razed the self-structured edifice of India’s military superiority to the ground without causing any credible loss to Pakistan’s military assets. Post the Pahalgam incident on April 22, 2025, which later proved to be a false flag operation to justify India’s pre-planned adventurism in the month to come, Pakistan behaved very responsibly. Both the civil and military leaderships overtly advised for restrain, though they did promise a tit-for-tat response if its sovereignty was violated.
For its part, India left no stone unturned to drive Pakistan into a full-scale military conflict. After repeatedly violating the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, India also unleashed heavy artillery firing in Sialkot and Narowal sectors along the Working Boundary. Initially, the Pakistani forces only undertook retaliatory firing. However, instead of reciprocating Pakistan’s peaceful posture, New Delhi took it as Islamabad’s weakness keeping on to intensify its firing along the LoC and the Working Boundary.
Simultaneously, the Indian media continued beating the drums of war and its bullish anchors and analysts tried to create war hysteria, exaggerating India’s military might. Most of the time, they glaringly ridiculed Pakistan’s peaceful behavior and boasted of dismembering Pakistan once and for all.India’s trumpets of war were so loud that not only the people of Pakistan and the region but also the international community developed the perception that Pakistan was not able to respond to any Indian aggression and it would succumb to any Indian aggression without offering any resistance.
Balance of Military Might: The balance between the land, naval and air forces of the two countries hugely tilted in favour of India. Besides, India enjoyed active support of the dreaded Israeli suicidal drones and other light and heavy military equipment. Apart from the drone and other supplies, Israel also fully supported India in the war in several ways. The Indian military particularly boasted of the French Rafale jet fighters and the Sudarshan Chakra or the Russian SU-400 Triumf air defense system.India also had perceivable naval superiority with its two aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, besides a huge fleet of state-of-the art submarines. INS Vikrant even cruised into a threatening posture towards the Arabian Sea as soon as the war began.
In this background, while the Indian war-mongering posture created war hysteria, the Pakistan side behaved in a well composed and balanced manner. It did not resort to any sort of intimidation or browbeating until its National Security Council, in its meeting on May 6 with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair and participation of all services chiefs, authorized Pakistan Army to undertake “corresponding actions” in response of any Indian aggression. The Prime Minister also visited the ISI Headquarters the same day getting first-hand knowledge of the armed forces’ state of preparedness. It was after these developments that Defense Minister Khawaja Asif uttered full preparedness of the armed forces to respond to any threat ‘at all times.’D-Day:The D-Day happened at midnight between May 6 and 7 when India showered barrages of missiles on civilian targets in Bahawalpur, Muridke, Narowal and Sialkot in Pakistan and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir, killing 31 innocent civilians and injuring scores of others. While the Indian blitzkrieg did not inflict any loss on Pakistan’s military assets, it did cause damage to civilian property.
Then came Pakistan’s befitting response. Five Indian jet fighters, including the much hyped Rafale, were brought down using the China made J-10C aircraft in the initial hours of the four-day war. In total, seven Indian aircraft and one SU-400 anti-aircraft battery were neutralized, which instantly tumbled to inflated morale of the Indian military, the government and the media alike.Diplomatic Victory: Prior to commencement of war, India had been unleashing a huge propaganda that it had rendered Pakistan isolated in the comity of nations with no country in the region and the world coming forward to its rescue. But the table got turned on India as the war began. China openly came in support of Pakistan promising and providing advance air support, including fifth generation jet fighter, J-35. Turkey and Azerbaijan also echoed China’s voice, announcing full backing for Pakistan in both war and peacetime.
Though the war came to a standstill on May 10, 2025 with a call from US President Donald Trump, who instantly activated his diplomatic channels to avert a nuclear catastrophe in the Subcontinent, but in fact it was Pakistan’s crushing blows that dealt severe damage to India’s military might completely shattering its morale and war-mongering narrative.Media Campaign:While Pakistan’s thumping victory was made possible due to complete cohesion and harmony among its three armed forces, backed by their cyber and digital branches, it was the able leadership of Chief of Defense Forces, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who stood fully composed during this difficult hour and combined the might of Pakistan Army, Navy and the Air Force.
The role of Pakistan Air Force, particularly the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, was commendable in the entire war.The Pakistani people and media also remained in the forefront, offering every kind of moral support to the armed forces. This writer, in his capacity as the Chairman of Pakistan Observer and Convener of the FPCCI Media and Broadcasting Standing Committee, hastened to describe Pakistan’s victory in the battlefield against the several time bigger enemy as a miracle. Later, he also arranged a special thanks-giving event at the FPCCI Karachi office with Sindh Minister for Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon, as chief guest, which paid tribute the Pakistani armed forces and attributed the victory to the unparalleled leadership of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
