NEW DELHI: Greater than two months after the Indian govt denied focusing on Kirana Hills, the place a piece of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is believed to be positioned, contemporary imagery from Google Earth, captured in June, seems to point {that a} missile certainly hit the strategically delicate web site in Pakistan’s Sargodha district.On Might 10, India focused a number of key Pakistani army installations as a part of Operation Sindoor to avenge the horrific killing of vacationers in J&Okay’s Pahalgam by terrorists linked to Pakistan-based terror teams.The satellite tv for pc photos had been analysed and shared by well-known satellite tv for pc imagery knowledgeable and geo-intelligence researcher Damien Symon on X. “Imagery replace from Google Earth of the Sargodha area, Pakistan, captured in June 2025, exhibits — 1. The influence location of India’s strike on Kirana Hills in Might 2025; 2. Repaired runways at Sargodha airbase post-India’s strikes in Might 2025,” he shared.
Repaired runways at Sargodha airbase put up India’s strikes in Might 2025. Courtesy Damien Symon on X
Kirana is a heavily-fortified space related to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. It’s believed to accommodate an underground nuclear weapons storage facility and function a web site for nuclear analysis and testing, together with subcritical nuclear exams carried out within the Eighties. The world is taken into account strategically necessary due to the radar stations and tunnels, purported to be meant for army function, positioned there. The positioning’s proximity to the Sargodha airbase (now rechristened Mushaf airbase) solely provides to its strategic significance .Within the instant wake of Operation Sindoor, the IAF had denied stories that it hit Kirana Hills.Replying to a query on Kirana Hills in a press convention on Might 12, Director Common of Air Operations Air Marshal AK Bharti had stated, “Thanks for telling us that Kirana Hills homes some nuclear installations. We didn’t learn about it. We’ve not hit Kirana Hills. I didn’t transient in my briefing yesterday.” Nonetheless, DGMO Bharti’s peculiar smile whereas answering that query then went viral.To an X person’s query on whether or not the Indian missile strike “signifies that the explosion was deep inside and whether or not this place which was struck a degree of significance like an entrance or an exit”, Symon replied, “No, this together with earlier imagery, neither point out any subterranean influence or penetration, its only one facet of a hill with nothing of worth in its instant neighborhood, should’ve been a warning strike on India’s half, tunnels and so forth are additional away & don’t present any injury.”Along with the influence web site, the satellite tv for pc photos additionally confirmed repaired runways on the Sargodha airbase, additional indicating injury sustained through the Indian strikes in Might. The fast repairs recommend the airbase was thought-about a high-priority strategic asset.India had launched round 15 BrahMos missiles and different precision weapons on the night time of Might 9-10, focusing on key Pakistani airbases. The operation, carried out by the IAF, broken 11 out of Pakistan’s 13 main airbases, delivering a major blow to the rival nation’s air defence community and army infrastructure.It was Symon who had earlier dismissed sure Pakistan media shops’ claims that their army had focused the Adampur airbase in Punjab allegedly damaging a Su-30MKI and destroying a Russia-developed S-400 air defence system. To dismiss these assertions, Symon had then offered imagery from March 2025, effectively earlier than the battle, which depicted a MiG-29 present process routine upkeep.After the battle ended, PM Narendra Modi went to the Adampur airbase and posed with safety personnel with an S-400 missile defence battery within the background, debunking Pakistan’s claims.