'Rafales, Plural?': Top Defence Official Rejects Pakistan's Op Sindoor Loss Claims
Defence secretary RK Singh's statement comes after the Indian defence attache in Indonesia suggested that the India lost fighter jets in the initial phase of Operation Sindoor
Refusing to answer questions on losses suffered during Operation Sindoor, defence secretary RK Singh has said it is incorrect to say India's Rafale fighter jets were shot down by Pakistan.
Singh stressed that Pakistan suffered far more losses than India, particularly '100 terrorists", when the armed forces carried out strikes on terror targets.
'You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct. Pakistan suffered losses many times over India in both human and material terms and more than 100 terrorists," Singh told CNBC-TV18.
Singh's statement comes after the Indian defence attache in Indonesia suggested that the Indian Air Force lost fighter jets in the initial phase of Operation Sindoor. He further clarified that the armed forces have full operational freedom in conflict.
'No political constraints on our armed forces and they have full operational freedom in conflict," he was quoted.
Media reports had quoted Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar, who recently spoke at a seminar in Indonesia, that the air force lost fighter jets to Pakistan on May 7 night while targeting terror-linked sites in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor.
The Indian embassy in Indonesia issued a statement saying Kumar's remarks were taken out of context and are a 'misrepresentation" of his presentation. It said the defence attache's presentation conveyed that the IAF serve under civilian political leadership unlike some other countries in our neighbourhood. It was also explained that the objective of Operation Sindoor was to target terrorist infrastructure and the Indian response was non-escalatory.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan using long-range weapons 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.
Four days of the military standoff were the most serious confrontation in years between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, and included air combat that involved dozens of aircraft from both sides. Military officials and researchers have since been digging for details of how Pakistan's Chinese-made military hardware – particularly warplanes and air-combat missiles – fared against weaponry that India used in airstrikes on Pakistani targets, notably French-made Rafale fighters.
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