Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said on Thursday that the high-speed flying object that crashed in Mian Channu on Wednesday was a supersonic missile that originated from India.

His remarks came during a press conference on Thursday, where he added that India has to explain the incident. The DG ISPR said that the Pakistan Army was also conducting a detailed inquiry into this matter.

He began the presser by saying, “on March 9, at 6:43 pm, a high-speed flying object was picked up inside the Indian territory by Air Defence Operations Centre of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).”

“From the initial course, it deviated and entered Pakistan territory and fell in Pakistani territory, causing some damage to civilian installations but no loss of life was reported,” he said, adding that the PAF continuously monitored the complete flying path of the object, from its point of origin [...] to its point of impact.

“The flight path endangered civilians in both India and Pakistan. India must explain what caused this; this reflects poorly on Indian aviation,” he said, adding that this could have resulted in a major aviation disaster.

Pakistan strongly protests the “flagrant violation”, he said, adding that there was no sensitive installation in Mian Channu where the projectile fell.”

When asked for more details about the object, he said “we are not claiming anything right now". "As a responsible nation, we will wait for India to respond. We have given details of whatever we know right now. But it is for the Indians to explain what happened in Mian Channu.”

Explaining the incident, Vice-Marshall Tariq Zia said that at the time this projectile was picked up, there were two airway routes active and several commercial airlines in the area.

“If you look at the speed and height of the projectile, it was 40,000 feet high, and the airlines were between 35,000 to 42,000 feet. This could have been very detrimental to the safety of passengers,” he said.

To a question, he said that “testing and trial of such weapon systems do take place, but what this was, India has to explain.”

He said that the incident raises serious questions over the capabilities of the human resources working on these programmes in India as well as this technology.