'When you want to send a clear message...': Expert claims India struck Kirana Hills nuclear facility during Op Sindoor

Aviation historian and analyst Tom Cooper has claimed that India struck Pakistan’s Kirana Hills nuclear facility during Operation Sindoor, saying the evidence of such an attack is “unmistakable.”

In an interview with NDTV, Cooper said he possessed multiple pieces of proof to support his assertion, despite official denials from the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Cooper said the timing and nature of the alleged strike indicated it was meant to send a strategic signal.

“It’s a place you hit when you want to send a clear message without causing, let’s put it this way, too much damage. It means, ‘Listen, guys in Pakistan, we can hit you severely where we want, whenever we want, with as much ammunition as we want. Stop it, finally’," NDTV quoted him as saying.

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Earlier, during Operation Sindoor, Cooper criticised India’s defence public relations apparatus in a Facebook post for not acknowledging what he described as a strike near Kirana Hills.

“India, India, India… and ‘IAF and its PR-work’… sigh… Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor – Vice Air Chief, IAF – gave a press conference, a day or so ago. And, ‘of course’, somebody asked him about IAF air strikes on the underground elements of the Kirana Hills — one of major Pakistani ‘weapons storage facilities’ — well-known to have been flown during the 88-Hours War, on 10 May 2025… Kapoor answered in the classic IAF-fashion: ‘we don’t know about it… these videos were presented by their people… they made them… we did nothing’…,” he wrote.

Cooper further argued that subsequent diplomatic activity reinforced his assessment.

Cooper said that when the timing of the alleged strike is examined alongside developments on the diplomatic front — including Islamabad reaching out to Washington and New Delhi and pushing for a ceasefire — the sequence of events appears telling.

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While he said it was not literally a case of begging for a ceasefire, he maintained that the developments that followed spoke for themselves and that the situation “cannot be clearer anymore," he told NDTV.

When asked about the evidence behind his claim, Cooper cited several indicators, including videos that allegedly show missile contrails descending onto the hillside. He also referred to smoke rising from what he described as the radar station of the 4091st Squadron of the Pakistani Air Force.

“And the evidence is so clear that the Indian Air Force hit these radar stations first to disable the Pakistani capability to counter its attack, and then hit at least two entrances to the underground storage facilities. And Kirana Hills is one of the centrepieces of the Pakistani nuclear programme. They have run something like 20-24 non-critical nuclear tests over there. I mean, it’s not Disneyland," he told NDTV.

Cooper also claimed that Pakistan’s retaliatory Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos had failed, attributing the outcome largely to Indian air defence systems.

He described the alleged strike as one of the decisive moments of the conflict and said it was among the key reasons he considers the episode a clear-cut victory for India.

With inputs from agencies