Took out 10 Pak jets, including F-16, JF-17: Air chief's big Op Sindoor revelation
Took out 10 Pak jets, including F-16, JF-17: Air chief's big Op Sindoor revelation
M.U.H
03/10/202524
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief AP Singh, in a massive disclosure, said on Friday that it destroyed 8–10 Pakistani fighter jets, including US-made F-16s and Chinese JF-17s, during the hostilities in May. The IAF chief, speaking at the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations, also dismissed claims about Indian jets being destroyed, calling them "manohar kahaniyan (fascinating tales)" by Pakistan.
Giving a clear picture of Pakistan's losses during Operation Sindoor for the first time, the Air Force chief said India took out 4-5 fighter jets of F-16 and JF-17 class and one surveillance aircraft in the air.
"We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, more than 300 km, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class," the Air Chief Marshal said.
He said that the 300 km strike inside Pakistani territory was the "longest kill" ever achieved by the air force, calling it the "highlight of the year" for the IAF.
LOSSES ON THE GROUND
On the ground, AP Singh said another 4–5 F-16 fighter jets were destroyed as India conducted precision strikes on radar systems, command and control centres, runways, and hangars.
Apart from the jets, the targets blown to smithereens on the ground include radars at four places, command and control centres at two locations, two runways, three hangars, and one Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) system.
This is likely to have happened on May 10, when India targeted 11 military airbases deep inside Pakistan, forcing Islamabad to reach out to India for a ceasefire.
The IAF chief said the details were part of the Air Force's post-strike assessments. He emphasised that the strikes proved to be a strategic and psychological blow to Pakistan.
"We made Pakistan reach a stage where they had to ask for a ceasefire," Singh said.
MOCKS CLAIMS BY PAK PM
The IAF chief's revelation comes days after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during his address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), claimed seven Indian fighter jets were downed.
It is a different matter that Pakistan has failed to provide any evidence of its claims so far.
Taking a swipe at Pakistan for making tall claims, AP Singh rubbed it in further.
"If they think they downed our 15 jets, I hope they are convinced about it and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again," he quipped.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 just after midnight in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which left 26 dead. In the operation, India destroyed nine key terror camps inside Pakistan.
