section_path: Aerial strikes and skirmishes/Alleged nuclear escalation
section_name: Alleged nuclear escalation
paragraph_text: Alleged nuclear escalation
  
  Some reports claimed that India's missile-drone strikes on several Pakistani airbases, especially Nur Khan, prompted US intervention for ceasefire agreement. The base is reportedly a strategic asset for PAF as "one of the central transport hubs" and "home to the air refueling capability" (No. 10 Squadron). The facility was also just over a mile from the headquarters of Strategic Plans Division responsible for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal which includes over 170 warheads. The New York Times also cited a former American official who stated, "Pakistan's deepest fear is of its nuclear command authority being decapitated" and that the Indian missile strikes were interpreted to be a warning for India's capability to do the same. According to Christopher Clary, an associate professor at the University at Albany, "So, an attack on the facility may have been perceived as more dangerous than India intended – and the two sides should not conclude that it is possible to have a conflict without it going nuclear". On 14 May, Reuters reported that Indian strikes on Nur Khan Airbase had alarmed US officials, due to the bases proximity to Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division.
  
  However, unlike the claims of multiple reports, India denied that it had struck the Kirana Hills Site. The International Atomic Energy Agency also affirmed after investigations, following social media rumours, that there had been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan. Also, both India's Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and Pakistan's Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza confirmed that there were no time during the conflict in which any of the nations had considered to use any nuclear weapons.