ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s air chief said on Thursday the military launched cyberattacks targeting Indian communication hubs, power grids and transport infrastructure during the brief May 2025 conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors, in what he described as a new model of cyber-enabled, multi-domain warfare.
The four-day conflict erupted after India blamed Pakistan-based militants for an April 22, 2025 attack in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists. Pakistan denied involvement and called for an independent investigation.
Tensions escalated rapidly after India launched cross-border strikes under “Operation Sindoor” on May 7, saying it had targeted militant infrastructure inside Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, the part of the disputed valley administered by Pakistan. Islamabad said civilian areas were hit and responded with “Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos,” targeting Indian military installations.
The fighting, involving missiles, drones, artillery exchanges and air operations, was the most serious confrontation between the two countries in decades before a US-backed ceasefire was announced on May 10, 2025.
“PAF cyber force launched its offensive, targeting Indian communication hubs, power grids and transport infrastructure ... causing massive power disruption in different Indian states and key military installation.,” Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu said during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of what Pakistan calls “Marka-e-Haq” (“Battle of Truth”).
India has not publicly confirmed Pakistani claims regarding cyberattacks on infrastructure during the conflict.
The air chief said the confrontation demonstrated the effectiveness of Pakistan’s military modernization and integration of cyber, electronic warfare and drone capabilities.
“What the world witnessed in May 2025 was not achieved overnight but acquired through our transformative modernization undertaken within the past four to five years,” he said.
Sidhu said Pakistan had conducted what he described as a new form of integrated warfare.
“For the first time in the history of air warfare, PAF conducted full-spectrum, multi-domain operation,” he said.
He also described the aerial confrontation as unprecedented in scale.
“What follows was the largest and longest BVR [beyond visual range] versus BVR engagement in the history of air combat,” he said, referring to beyond-visual-range aerial warfare.
According to the air chief, Pakistan Air Force aircraft including J-10 and F-16 fighters intercepted Indian strike formations while cyber and electronic warfare operations disrupted Indian military coordination.
“Pakistan Air Force valiant pilots started targeting enemy top-line fighter aircraft,” he said.
“Within minutes, multiple Rafale jets, Su-30MKI, Mirage 2000, MiG-29 and multi-million-dollar unmanned systems were shut down,” he said, naming several of India’s most advanced French- and Russian-made fighter aircraft.
India has disputed several Pakistani battlefield claims from the conflict, including aircraft losses and damage assessments, and many details remain independently unverified.
The Pakistani air chief also claimed Pakistan had targeted Indian military infrastructure using long-range strike systems and drones.
“Our killer drones, hypersonic missiles and long-range weapons struck 16 enemy air bases within a span of about 8 to 10 hours,” he said.
“Key military installation, BrahMos site, critical command and control center and two of its prized S-400 batteries was neutralized,” he said, referring to Indian missile infrastructure and Russian-made air defense systems.
Sidhu said Pakistan’s modernization drive had focused on rapid operationalization of advanced and locally developed technologies despite financial constraints.
“We inducted and operationalized numerous advanced combat and combat support capabilities along with niche technology in a record time,” he said.
“The smartly executed homegrown kill chain was developed under the ambit of newly established National Aerospace Science and Technology Park.”
Separately, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Pakistan’s intelligence agencies had provided advance warning of Indian actions during the conflict, allowing the military to prepare responses ahead of time.
“If you know in advance what is going to happen, then you prepare accordingly,” Naqvi said during a separate event marking the anniversary of the conflict. “And we knew almost everything, beforehand.”
Naqvi also claimed Pakistani drones had operated over the Indian capital during the fighting.
“They themselves know that they had so much fear on their channels when our drones were constantly roaming in Delhi for many hours,” he said. “And they were on top of their Prime Minister’s House, on top of their other sensitive areas.”
India has not commented publicly on those claims.
Naqvi said India had launched drone attacks on “about a hundred” Pakistani border posts during the confrontation, while Pakistan’s forces responded by targeting military infrastructure rather than civilians.
India and Pakistan continue to maintain competing narratives over the outcome and military impact of the May 2025 confrontation, which triggered international concern because both countries possess nuclear weapons.
In the days that followed the Pahalgam attack, both countries sharply downgraded ties, suspended visas, restricted airspace access and intensified military activity along the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between them.
India also announced it was suspending participation in the Indus Waters Treaty, a landmark 1960 World Bank-brokered water-sharing agreement that governs the use of rivers flowing between the two countries.
Pakistan and India have remained bitter rivals since gaining independence from British rule in 1947 and have fought multiple wars, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but control in part.
The Kashmir dispute remains one of the world’s longest-running unresolved territorial conflicts and continues to be a major source of tension between the two South Asian neighbors.
