Exactly a year after his country suffered huge military and strategic setbacks during Operation Sindoor, Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir attempted to project defiance by warning India of “extremely widespread, dangerous, far-reaching and painful” consequences in the event of any future military action against Islamabad.
Yet, behind the rhetoric lies a far more controversial reality exposed during the May 2025 conflict—the extensive use of heavily populated civilian areas (villages, schools, airports and residential neighbourhoods) by the Pakistan military as operational launch sites for drones, artillery, rockets and air defence systems against India.
Evidence from the Line of Control (LoC) as well as areas inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) suggests this was a deliberate strategy to shield military assets while using the presence of civilians to shape global opinion should those areas come under Indian retaliation.
Security analysts believe that when military assets are hidden among civilians, the battlefield no longer remains confined to the border—it moves directly into people’s homes. The logic behind such deployments appears two-fold. First, placing military assets amidst civilian populations potentially complicates retaliatory action by the adversary due to the heightened risk of collateral civilian casualties. Second, any resulting civilian damage can be leveraged for narrative warfare, propaganda campaigns and domestic/international sympathy.
This pattern is not new. Along the LoC, the Pakistan army has for decades been accused of positioning its mortars, artillery guns and firing detachments inside villages and populated settlements. Civilian houses have also repeatedly been used as staging points and launch pads for terrorist infiltrations into Indian territory. Records from the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars indicate Islamabad had extensively used civilian settlements, villages and populated zones as firing positions.
However, the May 2025 events surrounding Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos—Pakistan’s response to Operation Sindoor—have renewed focus on the scale and nature of such deployments. According to multiple reports and widely circulated visual evidence, several civilian localities in Pakistan and PoK were converted into active military operating sites. On the nights of May 8 and 9, 2025, Pakistan launched numerous drone attacks against Indian, reportedly using infrastructure and launch facilities located inside or adjacent to civilian areas.
Among the locations reportedly used for drone operations were facilities at Sialkot International Airport; a drone-launch site near a government girls’ high school in Jandrot, in PoK’s Kotli; another launch site at Padhar in Havelian, PoK; and the Mai Bakhtawar International Civil Airport in Islamkot, Sindh. The use of civilian aviation infrastructure and areas surrounding educational institutions for military drone operations has raised concerns regarding the risks posed to non-combatants.
Similarly, Pakistan’s recently inducted Chinese-origin SH-15 Mounted Gun System was reportedly deployed from Bareela Sharif village in Punjab province on May 8, 2025 and used for firing missions. Videos and photographs circulating on social media appeared to show the artillery platform positioned inside a populated village area.
Another SH-15 artillery deployment was reportedly identified near the Rawalakot Advance Landing Ground, located close to civilian habitations, from where firing missions targeting Indian civilian areas in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir were allegedly conducted.
Reports indicated that Pakistan’s FATAH-series rocket system—one of its most publicised long-range guided rocket platforms—had been deployed inside the populated town of Shakargarh in Punjab. Viral social media videos showed civilians standing close to the launcher and cheering during firing operations.
Additional imagery and reports suggested the deployment of an air defence gun system at Kotla village in Gujrat district of Punjab province; an RBS-70 man-portable air defence system positioned on the rooftop of a civilian home in Zafarwal, Punjab; and artillery systems placed near the Bunguna Sahib Singh School.
Taken together, these incidents reinforce broader concerns regarding what analysts describe as the systematic militarisation of civilian zones by the Pakistani armed forces. Indian officials and independent observers have long accused the Pakistan army of deliberately targeting civilian areas along the border to mount humanitarian and administrative pressure on India while simultaneously spreading fear among border populations.
Military experts note that under laws and conventions governing armed conflict, any site actively used for military purposes—including weapon deployment areas, launch infrastructure, firing positions and logistical support facilities—can be considered a legitimate military target during wartime.
During the 88 hours-long Operation Sindoor, despite the reported presence of military assets within civilian-populated areas, India is understood to have exercised restraint in avoiding direct strikes on several such locations in order to minimise collateral civilian casualties.
In contrast, critics argue that the repeated deployment of weapon systems within villages, schools, airports and residential neighbourhoods by the Pakistan military raises serious concerns regarding the safety and security of Pakistan’s own civilian populations, which remain unaware of the legal and physical dangers associated with military deployments in their immediate surroundings. It also blurs the distinction between civilian and military spaces, something considered fundamental under international humanitarian law.
As tensions between India and Pakistan continue to evolve after the May 2025 confrontation, the controversy surrounding Pakistan’s deployment practices is likely to remain a major point of strategic, humanitarian and diplomatic scrutiny. Ultimately, the events of Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos have again highlighted the dangerous consequences of embedding military infrastructure within civilian environments—a practice that risks turning ordinary towns and villages into potential battlegrounds during periods of conflict.
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