Team News Riveting
New Delhi, May 31
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Saturday said that there were aircraft losses in recent hostilities with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor but refuted Islamabad’s claim of downing six Indian jets.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Chauhan observed that it was more important for India to find out why the country lost the aircraft so that the military could improve their tactics and hit back again. “I think what is important is not the jet being downed but why they were being downed,” he said while responding to a question on whether India lost combat jets during the four-day military clashes with Pakistan earlier in May.
“The good part is that we were able to understand the tactical mistakes which we made; remedied, rectified and then implemented it again after two days. We flew all our jets again targeting at long range,” he added.
The CDS rejected Pakistan’s claim of shooting down six Indian jets during Operation Sindoor as “absolutely incorrect”. “We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it. Question is, have we achieved our objective? Answer is a thumping yes. At this time, I would not like to comment on that (loss of jets) as we are still in combat and give advantage to adversary. All our pilots are back home,” he said.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan using long-range weapons such as the Brahmos cruise missile in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10.
India launched a massive counter-attack on early May 10 that hit many of the key Pakistani military installations after the neighbouring country attempted to target Indian bases the previous night.
