Agreed on both.
As the operations were unfolding, ISPR was conducting daily media briefings to bring out facts. All the claims were supported with data. Either physical or digital. Very well conducted I must say.
When the claim of attack on 36 bases was made, I also had no doubt that it is likely to cause a lot of damage. Indian AD is supposed to be better than Pakistan but not so good.
I too was anticipating many deaths and a lot of damage. Next day Col Sophia and her AF counterpart accepted an ATTEMPT to attack many bases but NO substantial damage. I still assumed it to be not true and was expecting images of damage to show otherwise. Many posters claim this statement to be a proof. They don’t seem to understand the difference between ATTEMPT and SUCCESS. India ATTEMPTED against large number of installations. Did it succeed against all? NO.
Then satellite images were released by India and I was surprised with the accuracy and the reach of those attacks.
It was now the time for narrative buildup and there was no reason for the ISPR to not come out with their data. Sadly that hasn’t happened till date. If they were so keen to release information to prove their earlier claims, what would stop them from taking the high ground now? Intriguing isn’t it?
After all BuM was all about those attacks and with no proof, there were bound to be many questions.
Then it became clear, that probably the assault against Indian Installations did not really go as planned and envisaged. When India challenged Pakistan to come out with images, it was out of confidence that no major damage has been caused. The reason for ISPR’s silence in this regard started becoming clear. And it was not goodwill or to give an off ramp as claimed by many posters. It was lack of any images, which must have been procured and analysed and then buried deep.
Where did all the Fatah go then? Many of them obviously fell inside many bases and also close to military installations. But that isn’t good enough in these days of hyper-precision. One has to strike a target with precision of a couple of meters to be able to call it a success. Which apparently didn’t happen.
Some of these might have fallen on non-critical buildings or open areas. But it was clear to ISPR that those were not good enough for them to release any official data.
Then what is happening now? There was obviously a lot of questions being raised by critics about lack of success of BuM. What better way to do it then hand it over to media cells of organisations tasked to create narratives. It was given a spark and then it caught up on the social media and many hordes descended over it with Google images. Overnight OSINT experts were ready for the task to the glee and happiness of ISPR.
Very same people were claiming till few days back that India doesn’t allow satellite images of its infrastructure. What happened to that? Till yesterday, poor ISPR was hapless in being able to get images due to Indian hegemony over space?
You see how general population is taken for a ride. No one asked what happened to Chinese brethren who were providing active satellite support on 07 May. Can India stop them from providing these images? The term Fanboys is coined for these situations.
Why do I not accept this effort by so called OSINT? First of all by calling oneself OSINT, one doesn’t acquire the capabilities or tools of this trade.
Many of these X account holders have posted AI edited pictures with non-edited pictures. That muddies the waters. The intent becomes throwing muck and not bringing out facts. Then look at their past account activity. EACH ONE OF THEM, quoted here have been posting propaganda kind of stuff over a long time. That doesn’t give one credibility but takes it away.
Yes, few images do indicate some kind of repair work or renovation in progress. So what? Does that make it battle damage? A credible OSINt needs to get hold of good quality images within few days of the event and then do the analysis.
I have already stated all these earlier but many people are getting sentimental and angry against me.
I have just quoted the minimum required criteria for a credible BDA. And it’s not my fault that ISPR has failed in obtaining this data and laying everything to rest.
I am pretty sure that ISPR would let these amateurs take this narrative to Pakistani awaam and convince them of what they couldn’t achieve.
I am neither buying it nor giving it any credence.
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