Operation Sindoor: A Complete Timeline of India’s Deep Strikes in 2025

April 22 – The Spark

The Pahalgam massacre was quickly linked by Indian investigators and political leaders to Pakistan-based extremist networks operating with cross-border support, according to public briefings and international reporting. The Cabinet Committee on Security met; the Ministry of External Affairs described the incident as a deliberate attempt to inflame communal tensions. Domestic outrage set the political conditions for a decisive response.

May 7 – The Opening Salvo

In the pre-dawn hours of 7 May 2025, India announced it had launched a series of precision strikes on multiple sites in Pakistani Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, calling the operation ‘Sindoor’. According to Indian statements and later reporting, the attacks targeted what New Delhi described as the infrastructure of militant groups—training camps, logistics nodes, and command-and-control locations—and were carried out with a mix of long-range missiles, precision artillery munitions, loitering munitions, and strike aircraft. India emphasised that it intended to hit terrorist infrastructure, not Pakistani civilian or military installations.

May 8-9 – A Sharp Escalation and a Wider Exchange

Pakistan responded with its own strikes and a campaign it labelled ‘Marka-i-Haq’, and for forty-eight hours the exchanges intensified. Air forces scrambled, air-defence systems engaged incoming threats, and both sides reported damage to selected facilities.

There were also asymmetric elements: a wave of kamikaze drones, cyber intrusions, and targeted assaults on military airfields were reported in contemporaneous sources

Civilian life was disrupted—airports temporarily closed, exams and sporting fixtures postponed—while both capitals moved to marshal international attention and sympathy.

May 10 – From Guns to Hotlines

After intense diplomatic outreach—from regional partners and global powers urging de-escalation—the two sides agreed to a direct military-to-military hotline conversation between their Directors General of Military Operations. That communication, and parallel diplomatic contacts, produced a fragile ceasefire announcement on 10 May: the strikes that had roiled the subcontinent for four days were declared halted, and both countries said they would step back from further kinetic escalation while channels of communication remained open. Independent analysts later described the four days as a deliberately limited campaign in which both sides sought to signal resolve while avoiding an open, protracted war.

Aftermath – Claims, Counters, and the Information Battle

In the immediate aftermath, New Delhi released satellite imagery and statements to substantiate its claims that militant infrastructure had been struck; Islamabad condemned the strikes as “an act of war” and highlighted civilian casualties and infrastructure damage in provinces and garrison towns.

Both sides engaged in vigorous information campaigns—blocking and counter-blocking digital platforms, publicising “before-and-after” imagery, and elevating their own narratives to domestic and international audiences. Think tanks and independent researchers worked to verify what had happened on the ground; early assessments warned that the conflict, though short, set new precedents for cross-border use of precision long-range weapons and kamikaze drones.

Also read: Operation Sindoor: 4 Books Tracing India’s Deep Strikes, Air Defence & the Pakistan Conflict

Why Operation Sindoor mattered

Beyond the immediate tactical effects, Operation Sindoor illustrated three enduring shifts in South Asian conflict dynamics. First, the use of precision-guided and remote systems made it possible for states to conduct targeted punitive strikes without full-scale invasion.

Second, the episode demonstrated how terrorism, state policy, and domestic politics can intersect to prompt rapid military decisions. Third, the crisis underlined the role of third-party diplomacy and the perils of escalation in a region with two nuclear-armed states—prompting renewed calls for crisis-management mechanisms and confidence-building measures.

A few months on, much of daily life has resumed; the ceasefire has mostly held, and diplomats keep insisting that channels remain open. But Operation Sindoor left an imprint: a reminder that modern warfare often arrives as a short, sharp shock—missile trails, a flurry of air activity, and a flood of competing narratives—and that in such contests the line between demonstration and disaster can be painfully thin.

For citizens on both sides of the border, the human cost of those four days—and the violence that provoked them—will remain the clearest measure of what was gained and what was lost.

If you are looking to explore this episode in detail, you can also find a comprehensive military analysis in Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India’s Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan by Lt Gen KJS 'Tiny' Dhillon, PVSM, UYSM, YSM, VSM (Retd).

Also read: How India Secured Its Skies During Operation Sindoor