‘Pakistan had no means left to hit India back, not even with nuclear weapons’: War historian Tom Cooper

War historian Tom Cooper, weighing in on the India-Pakistan conflict and the countries’ respective military might, said despite what politicians and leaders of either countries say, India was free to strike Pakistan’s nuclear storage facilities, and Pakistan had no means to hit back. 

Cooper, in an interview with NDTV said that Indian generals are rather cautious and reluctant when it comes to nuclear facilities. “They do not take such decisions easily,” he said, adding that there is nothing in warfare which is more serious than such operations. 

“Now by all respect whatever the politicians say, whatever this prime minister says or that prime minister says, whatever, whoever else says at that point in time it is a clear-cut victory because India is free to strike nuclear weapon storage facilities and Pakistan is hitting back but it's not effective, which means Pakistan has no means left to hit back on India not even with nuclear weapons,” he said. 

Cooper said India only wanted to hit the nine terror camps in retaliation to the Pahalgam attacks. “India knew they were related to the Pakistani government, to the Pakistani armed forces but it limited its operation to strike in nine terror camps. And had Pakistan been sane enough to accept this fact and get over it, the entire situation would have ended at that point,” he said. 

“Pakistan attempted to retaliate. It launched a massive missile and UAV strike. What happened with this strike? It was obvious that it was unsuccessful,” said Cooper.

He said while there were hundreds of intercepts of Pakistani missiles and UAVs, “no serious damage was caused to India”. Cooper said there is no evidence of Pakistani strikes causing any harm or damage to India. “On the contrary, India hit back and started knocking out Pakistani air defence systems,” said Cooper in the interview.

Cooper said while the degree of damage to Pakistan’s air defence systems was unclear, they attempted retaliation the next day. “What was the result of that air strike remains unclear but obviously no serious damage was caused to India again. On the contrary, Indian air defences remained active, vivid, shooting down additional UAVs, shooting down additional missiles, claiming to have shot down additional Pakistani aircraft,” he said.