Bengaluru

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, on Saturday, said that the Indian Armed Forces had destroyed at least five Pakistani fighter aircraft and one large aircraft during Operation Sindoor.

The Air Chief revealed the information about India's damage to Pakistan's defence capabilities, while addressing an event at the Hal Management Academy.

"We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT aircraft or an AEW &C aircraft, which was taken on at a distance of about 300 kilometres. This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about," Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

Listing other damages on Pakistan's defence capabilities, the Air Chief said, "We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars, some of them big, some of them small. Two SAGW systems that is in Lahore and Okara. We attacked three hangars. One was the Sukkur UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar and the Jacobabad F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance there."

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases, including Nur Khan air base in Pakistan.

No Restrictions

The Indian Air Force Chief emphasised that there were "no restrictions" on armed forces and any constraints that the armed forces exercised were self-made.

"A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There was very clear political will and very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us... If there were any constraints, they were self-made. The forces decided what the rules of engagement would be. We decided how we wanted to control the escalation. We had full freedom to plan and execute," Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

He further spoke about how the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) organised all three armed forces- the Army, Navy and Air Force-to coordinate with each other.

"There was a synchronisation between the three forces... The post of CDS made a real difference. He was there to get us together. NSA also played a big role in getting all the agencies," he said.

Earlier, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the Indian government's "political will" during the discussion on Operation Sindoor in Parliament.

"You told the Pakistanis exactly what you would do. You told them we would not hit military targets, you told them we do not want escalation... It means you have directly told Pakistan that you do not have the political will to fight. This is said by the Defence Minister. It means the government of India informed the Pakistani government that we have no political will, we don't want to fight. Surrender, immediate surrender in 30 minutes," the Congress MP said.

Referring to the remarks of Chief of Defence Staff Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan and Captain Shiv Kumar, Defence Attache, Indonesia, Rahul Gandhi had also alleged that India lost its fighter jets because armed forces were "constrained by political leadership."

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, expressed regret that they were not able to convince some people in the country regarding the damage inflicted on terrorist camps during the 2019 Balakot airstrike, despite possessing human intelligence about the same.

Ghost of Balakote

He informed that the armed forces had intelligence regarding "many terrorists" being killed in the Balakot airstrike across the border.

"In Balakot, we could not get anything from inside, and it became a big issue trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, as to what we have been able to achieve. We had intelligence (human kind of intelligence) on what had gone on inside, where we had a very clear picture of the inside in terms of there having been huge damage. There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that," Air Chief Marshal Sing said while addressing the gathering at the Hal Management Academy.

He stated that a lack of video evidence would have raised similar issues following Operation Sindoor, but now, the videos on the recently concluded military operation are "out in the open".

"Things like this would have given us the same problem (regarding Operation Sindoor). However, we were lucky that we got these videos in the open. So, I'm very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot, and we were able to tell the world what we have achieved," the Air Chief Marshal said.

Praising India's decision to "stop the war," he said that the only aim of Operation Sindoor was to "teach terrorists a lesson" .  Once the objectives were achieving India looked for opportunities to "stop" the conflict.

"People got down to their egos in the war, and that is what is continuously driving the ongoing conflicts. We set a very good example. Our objective was very clear: to teach terrorists a lesson. Once we achieved our objective, we should have looked for all windows of opportunity to stop that. Some people very close to me said, 'Aur maarna tha'. But can we continue to be at war? The nation has taken a good decision," Air Chief Marshal Singh added.

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Earlier, some of the opposition parties and leaders have raised questions regarding the 2019 Balakot air strikes, which were carried out in response to the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of at least 40 CRPF soldiers.