Modi Told Vance India Would Respond Firmly; Pakistan Sought US Help After Base Damage

New Delhi: In the early hours of May 10, 2025, Indian armed forces launched precision strikes on key Pakistani air bases, marking the most decisive military response since the Pahalgam terror attack. The move came just hours after a call between US Vice President J.D. Vance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where Washington shared intelligence warning of “dramatic escalation” if tensions carried into the weekend.

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Sources confirmed that Prime Minister Modi assured Vance that India would respond with a “harder, deeper, and bigger” counter-offensive if provoked. That red line was crossed when Pakistan, on the night of May 9, launched drone and missile attacks on 26 Indian frontier locations, a major increase from the previous average of 10.

India's Military Response: “Hellfire” on Strategic Targets

The Indian retaliation was swift and calculated. Using air-launched precision munitions, Indian fighter aircraft struck eight Pakistani military bases including:

• PAF Rafiqui Air Base

• Murid Air Base

• Chaklala (Nur Khan) Base near Rawalpindi

• Rahim Yar Khan and Sukkur Bases

• Chunian Training Facilities

• Radar installations at Pasrur and the Sialkot Aviation Base

Sources close to the operation described it as “hellfire”, noting that Rahim Yar Khan’s runway was damaged, and Chaklala suffered significant infrastructure destruction, including radar incapacitation.

Diplomacy After the Fire

The scale and precision of India’s strikes proved to be a turning point. Within hours, Pakistan’s military leadership contacted the US, and calls between Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir and US officials were held, including Secretary of State and NSA Marco Rubio.

Rubio later spoke with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who reiterated India’s openness to dialogue — a position conveyed earlier but conditioned on Pakistani de-escalation.

By 1 PM on May 10, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations Maj. Gen. Kashif Abdullah reached out to Lt Gen. Rajiv Ghai, his Indian counterpart. A conversation at 3:30 PM led to a mutual decision to halt further military action, ending the brief but intense cycle of escalation.

Political, Military, and Psychological Objectives Met

From India’s perspective, the strikes were part of a three-pronged strategy: political pressure, military dominance, and psychological deterrence.

🔺 Politically:

India moved to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, a landmark agreement with Pakistan, signaling a fundamental shift. The government maintained that “blood and water cannot flow together”, especially after Pakistan’s alleged role in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which killed 26, mostly tourists.

🔺 Militarily:

India leaned on experience from past operations — the 2016 Uri surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot airstrikes — but altered tactics to retain surprise and strategic ambiguity. Crucially, India targeted symbolic terror locations like Muridke, Bahawalpur, and Muzaffarabad — known hubs for Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

A Ceasefire, But Not Silence

While firing has stopped for now, New Delhi sees this as a successful imposition of cost on Pakistan, not just militarily but diplomatically. By elevating the consequences of terrorism, India believes it has redefined the red lines in cross-border hostilities.

Whether the current calm holds or spirals again will depend on Pakistan’s next steps — but India’s message, loud and clear, is that “a bullet will be met with a shell.”