Reiterating that India is not going to live under the shadow of terror or nuclear blackmail, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday sent out a clear-cut message to Pakistan that its State-sponsored terrorism must stop and that it should not hold India hostage to its terror activities.
Maintaining that “Pakistan’s strategy to bleed India by a thousand cuts will no longer go unanswered,” the CDS said, “Operation Sindoor was not about retribution. I think it was about drawing these limits of tolerance. Thus, and not far.
The thinking behind Operation Sindoor is that State-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan has to stop and that country should not be able to hold India hostage to terror activities.”
Speaking on Future Wars and Warfare at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, General Chauhan said, Operation Sindoor was not over, “...as yet. It continues. It is only a temporary cessation of operations. There is a need to keep our guard up”.
“As far as the Pakistani side is concerned, I can make two guesses. One, that they were losing things faster at a very long distance, and they thought that if this continued for some more time, they were likely to lose more, and hence they picked up the telephone,” he said.
“From our side, we didn’t want to get into a long-drawn conflict. We’ve seen our experience in Operation Prakaram. We were there for almost nine months. It involves a lot of expenditure, disrupts everything. We had seen this to some extent after Balakot, there was a deployment which we had mobilised. In this particular case, what happened was that before this mobilisation could be completed, the operations were halted,” the CDS said.
Talking about the takeaways of Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan said, “Operation Sindoor created history as far as air warfare is concerned. Successful operations were carried out against the adversary. If you are able to carry out relentless operations deep inside with precision and offensive intent. It was a big achievement and we were able to penetrate those defence networks”.
Queried about the losses suffered by the Pakistan side during Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan said, “When I was asked about losses on our side, I said these are not important. The results and how you act are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses. Suppose you go in a cricket test match, and you win by an innings defeat, then there’s no question of how many wickets, how many balls and how many players...”
The CDS, however, said that India would come out with data about the losses incurred by Pakistan.
“Based on technical parameters, we will take out this particular data and share it with you. We will tell you how many aircraft we destroyed and how many radars we destroyed. We’ll make a rough assessment of that and come out with that shortly,” he said.
Dwelling upon what triggered the recent conflict with Pakistan, the CDS said, “The whole starting point of this particular war was the Pahalgam terror attack. Is terrorism rational act of warfare? I don’t think so, because terrorism has no defined logic”.
“In 1965, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared a thousand-year war against India when he addressed the United Nations Security Council,” he said about Bhutto, the fourth President and ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan — a reference to Operation Gibraltar.
“As far as our adversary is concerned, it has decided to bleed India by a thousand cuts,” he said, alluding to President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’ssdoctrine of “bleed India through a thousand cuts’ byscovert and low-intensity warfare with militancy and infiltration as part of Operation Tupac.
Through “Operation Sindoor”, India had sent out a message to Islamabad that “Pakistan’s strategy “to bleed India by a thousand cuts” will no longer go unanswered,” he said
Gen Chauhan said that India had warned Pakistan after the strikes on terror camps onsMay 7 that any escalation would meet with harder action.”We had informed Pakistan on the day we launched the surgical strikes on 7 May… when there was rhetoric from the Pakistani side, we also said that in case Pakistan hits us, hits the military establishments, we are going to hit them back, hit them harder”, he said.
The CDS said that a rattled Pakistan had to pick up the phone seeking ceasefire. “On the 10th of May, at about 1 am, their aim was to get India to its knees in 48 hours. Multiple attacks were launched, and in some manner, they have escalated this conflict, which we had hit only terror targets. Operations which they thought would continue for 48 hours folded up in about 8 hours, and then they picked up the telephone and said they wanted to talk,” he said.
“On May 10, the Indian armed forces inflicted heavy damage to the Pakistani forces and their military infrastructure deep inside Pakistan. In response to Pakistan’s ballistic missiles, which were destroyed midair by Indian air defence systems, the Indian forces launched BrahMos and destroyed at least 11 airbases in the enemy territory,” he said.
“When the request for talks and de-escalation came from Pakistan, we did accept it,” General Chauhan said.
Leak says more Pakistan sites struck than claimed
In a stunning revelation, a leaked Pakistani military dossier confirms that at least eight additional targets hit deep inside Pakistan-sites not listed by the Indian military during official briefings following the May 6-7 strikes during “Operation Sindoor”. A map in the dossier shows Indian strikes in Pakistan damaged structures in Peshawar, Jhang, Hyderabad in Sindh, Gujarat in Punjab, Gujranwala, Bhawalnagar, Attock, and Chor, on the intervening night of May 9 and May 10. These were in addition to earlier strikes on May 7 and May 8, details of which were only partially disclosed by Indian authorities. Another map revealed locations struck by India on the intervening night of May 7 and May 8. Another map revealed locations struck by India on the intervening night of May 7 and May 8. The question arises Why would Pakistan make public that India struck more sites than claimed? The broader objective might be to paint before the global community that India targeted civilian areas deep inside Pakistan. The dossier, however, does not mention if the targeted sites were civilian areas or military infrastructure. Earlier India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan had hinted earlier this week that the armed forces would disclose more details about the Pakistani damage “in due time.” Now, Islamabad’s own internal assessment, ‘Operation Bunyan un Marsoos’ has laid bare the extent of the Indian offensive.