India clarifies that missile which landed in Pakistan was fired accidentally due to malfunction, incident being probed

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India has clarified that a missile which landed in Pakistan territory on  Wednesday got accidentally fired due to a technical malfunction in the course of a routine maintenance. </p>
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“On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile. The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry,” the defence ministry said in a statement.</p>
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“It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan. While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident,” the statement explained.</p>
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Pakistan had on Friday had warned New Delhi of "unpleasant consequences" over the incident.</p>
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Pakistan foreign office said in a statement it summoned India's charge d'affaires in Islamabad to lodge a protest over what it said was the unprovoked violation of its airspace. Pakistan called for an investigation of the incident, which it said could have endangered passenger flights and civilian lives.</p>
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Pakistan warned India in the statement "to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence off such violations in future."</p>
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In a hurriedly called news conference late on Thursday night, Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said, "On 9 March a high-speed flying object was picked up inside Indian territory by air defence operations centre of the Pakistan air force."</p>
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He said the military was not sure of the nature of the object, which he said crashed near the eastern Pakistani city of Mian Channu and originated from Sirsa, a city in India’s Haryana province.</p>
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Pakistan also called on India to share outcome of the investigation into the incident.</p>
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A Pakistan air force official at the news conference said the object was being analysed forensically and initial studies suggested it was a surface-to-surface supersonic missile, but was unarmed.</p>
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He said it travelled at an altitude of 40,000 feet, at Mach 3, and flew 124 kilometres in Pakistani airspace before crashing.</p>
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Iftikhar said the military would not jump to conclusions until they got an explanation from India, but said that Pakistan strongly protested against a "flagrant violation" of its airspace.</p>
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"Whatever caused this incident to happen, it is for the Indians to explain," Iftikhar had said.</p>