Indira Gandhi approved this.
Tel Aviv: The Israeli army had confronted Lebanon’s Hezbollah for months. Also, Iran launched massive drone and missile strikes against Israel in April and October 2024. Earlier in 1981, Israel destroyed Iraqi nuclear facilities in Osirak, Iraq. Amidst this, there is an increasing discussion that if India had also adopted Israel’s model, Pakistan could have been prevented from developing nuclear weapons.
It is said that Israel had also offered help to India for this and a plan was prepared for it. So why was that plan not implemented? Let’s find out what that plan was. Formal diplomatic relations between Israel and India were established in 1992, but both countries had been in contact for a long time.
The year was 1984 when India and Israel planned a covert operation in Pakistan. Pakistan’s nuclear programme threatened both. In 1965, Pakistan’s then Foreign Minister and later Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had expressed the intention to create a nuclear bomb. He stated that Pakistan, even if it had to eat grass or leaves, would acquire a nuclear bomb. After the defeat in the Bangladesh war in 1971, when Bhutto assumed command of Pakistan, work on this began.
Pakistan’s nuclear programme relied on designs and technology stolen from Europe and China. By the late 1970s and 1980s, the programme was progressing towards acquiring nuclear weapons. This was a cause for concern for both India and Israel. Meanwhile, India became aware that Pakistan was attempting to build nuclear weapons in Kahuta, near Islamabad. India knew that any nuclear weapon from Pakistan would primarily be aimed at New Delhi. On the other hand, Israel feared that Pakistan’s ‘Islamic nuclear bomb’ would become a significant power for its Arab rivals. Subsequently, cooperation began between India’s intelligence agency RAW and Israel’s Mossad regarding Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.
Experts suggest that Israel had shared a plan with India. The plan was that both countries would work together to attack and destroy Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. Soon, Pakistani intelligence agencies warned that Israel and India were planning an attack in Kahuta. It is reported that Israeli aircraft were to take off from the Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat to attack Pakistan. F-16 and F-15 fighter jets were to be used in this operation. However, this has never been confirmed. Journalist Adrian Levy writes that immediately after the Israeli attack on Osirak, a team of Indian officials arrived in Israel, which included both military and intelligence officials.
In 1982, The Washington Post and in 1984, America’s ABC News reported that there was a plan to attack Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. After the news broke in the American media, pressure mounted on India not to take direct action.
Meanwhile, Israel came forward and offered to carry out the attack itself. They were going to use Israeli jets from the Jamnagar airbase. According to the plan, the Israeli jets would proceed while avoiding radar in the hilly areas of Kashmir and reach open areas near Islamabad to launch the attack. Levi went so far as to say that in March 1984, Indira Gandhi approved this operation, but the CIA alerted Pakistan about the operation. Following this, India and Israel decided to cancel the plan.
