India, Pak to hold separate naval drills in Arabian Sea on August 11-12: Report

The Indian Navy will conduct naval drills in the Arabian Sea on August 11 and 12, defence sources were quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Sunday. Around the same time, the Pakistan Navy has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) announcing its own exercises in its territorial waters.

The overlapping schedules points to heightened military activity in the strategically significant Arabian Sea, a key route for maritime trade and crucial to regional security.

The development comes just months after a tense military standoff in May. On May 7, India had launched retaliatory strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. In response, Pakistan launched drone and missile attacks on India, prompting counterstrikes by Indian defence forces on 11 Pakistani air bases.

Both countries agreed on May 10 to halt firing along the Line of Control and pause further military



action.

Recalling the episode during a recent debate on Operation Sindoor in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) had pleaded for a ceasefire. “Pakistan said, ‘Bahut maara, ab jyada maar jhelne ki takat nahi hai’. They asked us to stop the war,” the PM told MPs.

PM Modi described Operation Sindoor as a decisive response to the Pahalgam attack. “On the night of May 6-7, we conducted an operation the way we wanted, and Pakistan couldn’t do anything. In 22 minutes, we avenged the April 22 attack,” he said, adding that Pakistan had even issued nuclear threats in anticipation of India’s retaliation.

The Prime Minister underlined three key takeaways from the operation: “If there is a terrorist attack on India, we will respond in our own method, on our conditions and on our time. No nuclear blackmail would work now. And we will not see terrorist-supporting governments and terror masterminds as two separate entities.”