New Delhi: Pakistan fighter jets - US-made F-16s and Chinese J-17s - were shot down by India during Operation Sindoor, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said Friday. He also rubbished claims about Indian jets being destroyed, labelling them Pak Army propaganda to mislead Pakistani citizens.
The Air Force chief also said it was Pak that asked India for a ceasefire, underlining the government's repeated assertion on this subject, that cessation of hostilities on May 10 was the result of Islamabad suing for peace rather than United States President Donald Trump intervening and bullying the two nations into stopping the conflict.
The Air Force chief also said the world witnessed the power and precision of the Indian military as it targeted and neutralised nine terror camps and bases in Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the terror attack on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
"In Operation Sindoor, you saw the terrorists paid the price for killing innocent people... and the world saw we achieved our goal. We struck targets across 300 km, then they (Pakistan) asked for the ceasefire," he said, also praising the country's air defence systems for successfully repelling or shooting down Pakistani missiles or drones during the nearly 100-hour conflict.
Over the past four months Trump has several times claimed credit for the ceasefire, including making statements to that effect in the United Nations General Assembly and in meetings with other world leaders. He repeated that claim on Wednesday in remarks to American military officials; "I had India and Pakistan, (they) were going at it. And I called them both, and in this case, I used trade," he boasted.
The Air Force chief, however, also offered a warning of the evolution of military conflict over the next several generations. 'The next war will be different from the previous one. We must be prepared now and for the future as well," he said.
The remarks echoed those made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh last month.
Highlighting the transformation of modern-day conflicts, the Defence Minister said, "Today, in the 21st century, this transformation has become even more rapid. Sheer numbers of soldiers or the size of weapon stockpiles are no longer enough. Cyber Warfare, Artificial Intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Satellite-based Surveillance are shaping the wars of the future. Precision-guided weapons, real-time intelligence and data-driven information have now become the cornerstone of success in any conflict."
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