VIENNA: Days after India refuted reports that Pakistan’s Kirana Hills area, which reportedly houses a nuclear facility, was hit during one of the airstrikes during Operation Sindoor, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan.
“Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan,” the IAEA said in an email statement.
The global nuclear watchdog made the statement in response to a query on reports of a nuclear leak in Pakistan. The IAEA’s statement comes days after Air Marshal AK Bharti, while addressing a press briefing on Monday, said that the Indian Armed Forces did not target the nuclear facility at Kirana Hills in Pakistan.
🇵🇰 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓: Satellite imagery from Kirana Hills confirms what looks like something did penetrate the side of the mountain into possibly Pakistan’s nuclear storage site. Image Credit:
Credit: @sierrakilo787 https://t.co/V6QnYkMP4L pic.twitter.com/UdrV0iMejB
— Conflict Monitor (@ConflictMoniter) May 13, 2025
When asked whether India had struck Kirana Hills, Air Marshal A K Bharti responded, “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation, we did not know about it. We have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there”.
US President Donald Trump had made reference to a possible nuclear fallout between the two countries claiming that the US had helped broker a peace preventing a Nuclear war. “We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. I also want to thank VP JD Vance and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for their work”, Trump had said.
Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). This operation was a retaliatory response to the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians, including one Nepali national, while several others were injured.
After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities. (ANI)
