2 months after Sindoor, Pak’s Rahim Yar Khan base still shut

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s Rahim Yar Khan airbase, which was hit by Indian missiles during Operation Sindoor over two months ago, is still not operational, an indication of the extent of damage the strategic military installation suffered. Pakistan airport authority is learnt to have issued another ‘Notice to Airmen’, aka ‘Notam’, for its runway, declaring it unusable till Aug 5, sources said.

The airbase, located around 230 km south of Bahawalpur, holds a strategic place in Pakistan’s southern air defence due to its proximity to India’s Rajasthan border. It had suffered massive damage in the precision strikes carried out by India early in May. In May-end, PM Narendra Modi had said at a rally in Rajasthan’s Bikaner that the airbase was in ‘ICU’.


Located within the perimeters of an international airport, the airbase had issued the first Notam on the evening of May 10 declaring the runway non-operational for a week (May 18), and later extended it. Notam was again issued in early June, extending the closure of the airbase until July 4. The latest notice said the runway is unavailable for flight operations due to “work in progress”.

The airbase serves as a forward operating base for the Pakistan Air Force central command and was used heavily for military purposes. The missiles fired at Rahim Yar Khan airbase caused a massive crater on its runway, a Pakistan district commissioner had told the local press in May. However, the damage, clearly, was much bigger than a crater as the airbase has been non-functional for over two months.

Besides this airbase, simultaneous attacks were carried out on Nur Khan airbase at Chaklala in Rawalpindi, the Rafiqui airbase at Shorkot in Punjab, the Murid airbase in Chakwal and the Chunian airbase in Punjab. Pakistan officials had acknowledged damage to transport aircraft at Nur Khan and technical facilities at Chunian.

Similarly, the Markaz Subhan Allah terror camp in Bahawalpur, reduced to rubble in airstrikes, has been shut down indefinitely with the Jaish-e-Muhammed brass looking for a new address, preferably in a densely populated area, sources said.

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