As per recent news, an accidental missile fired by India last week caused Pakistan to prepare a retaliatory strike, demonstrating how near the nuclear-armed neighbours came to war over a potentially disastrous mistake.
People familiar with the situation said Pakistan had planned to launch a comparable missile to target India, but held off as an initial assessment showed something was wrong. The Indian missile caused some damage to residential property but no casualties occurred.
According to the people familiar with the situation in India, the Indian Air Force launched the BrahMos medium-range cruise missile on March 9 from the garrison town of Ambala, which is roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital New Delhi.
The mishap took place as a result of human and technical failures during a routine exercise to test equipment capable of taking offensive action in conflict.
Despite this, India did not use the direct hotline between top army commanders on both sides to inform Pakistan after the launch; people said, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.
Instead, officials with the Air Force decided to shut down the missile systems in order to prevent any more launches, they added.
