Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi has recently criticized Pakistan's claims of victory following the May clashes after Operation Sindoor. Speaking at IIT Madras, Dwivedi highlighted the importance of narrative management in warfare, remarking, "If you ask a Pakistani whether you lost or won, he'd say, 'My chief has become a field marshal. We must have won, that's why he's become a field marshal,'". This statement references the Pakistan government's promotion of its Army chief, Asim Munir, to a five-star general and field marshal.
Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the death of 26 civilians. India accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, a charge Pakistan has denied. The operation involved missile strikes on alleged terrorist infrastructure belonging to groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir. India stated that the strikes were precise and targeted only military assets, while Pakistan claimed that civilian areas, including mosques, were hit, resulting in casualties.
Following the strikes, both countries engaged in border skirmishes and drone strikes. The Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, revealed that India shot down six Pakistani aircraft, including five fighter jets and a high-value surveillance platform, during the operation. He added that the strikes also inflicted significant damage on Pakistan's air assets and infrastructure, including command and control centers, radar systems, and aircraft hangars. Singh credited the S-400 air defense systems for the successful downing of the Pakistani jets. He described taking down the surveillance aircraft at a distance of 300 km as the "largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill".
Conversely, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has flatly denied that any Pakistani military aircraft were hit or destroyed during Operation Sindoor. Asif dismissed the IAF chief's claims as "implausible" and "ill-timed," asserting that India's losses along the Line of Control were "disproportionately heavier". He challenged India to open their aircraft inventories for independent verification to reveal the truth.
General Dwivedi stated that the Indian forces were given a "free hand" by the government to execute Operation Sindoor after the Pahalgam attack. He quoted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as saying, "Enough is enough," and authorized the chiefs to decide on the appropriate response. Dwivedi described Operation Sindoor as "just short" of a conventional operation, likening it to a game of chess where Indian forces delivered "checkmates" to the enemy.
US warfare expert John Spencer commented on Operation Sindoor, noting that it had many surprises that are not expected in the clash of two advanced militaries. He credited the operation's success to the alignment between the political and military objectives, with the military carrying out the mission with the right of self-defense.
The 2025 India-Pakistan conflict, triggered by Operation Sindoor, lasted for a brief period, with both sides reaching an understanding to end the conflict on May 10 after intense cross-border firing.
