A Year After Telling Parliament No Soldiers Were Harmed in Op Sindoor, Govt Names Six at National War Memorial

New Delhi: More than a year after Operation Sindoor, the Union government has released the names of six military personnel who died in the line of duty during the military confrontation against Pakistan in May 2025, inscribing them on a wall at the National War Memorial in Delhi. This is nearly a year after Defence minister Rajnath Singh declared in parliament that no soldiers were harmed in the operation.

After this was pointed out, the defence ministry on Saturday (June 27) said it had honoured the six personnel with awards and claimed that Singh made his remarks in parliament last July to deny that Indian pilots were killed during the operation, though he had not explicitly mentioned it at the time.

Operation Sindoor was conducted in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year in which 26 civilians, most of them tourists, lost their lives. The Indian armed forces had in retaliation struck nine terror-linked sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir allegedly associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. 

There was no ceremonial announcement for the personnel who lost their lives. In fact, the government had until now evaded most questions around it. This has prompted the opposition to accuse the government of concealing their martyrdom and denying them due recognition for over a year.

Later, on Saturday evening, the defence ministry said in one of two press releases that it had announced awards for the six personnel in August last year. The chief of army staff presented the Sena Medal (gallantry) to the kin of three of the deceased at the Army Day parade in January, it added, while the chief of air staff had honoured one of them last November.

It also recalled that then-director general of military operations Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai had condoled their deaths during his press conference of May 11, 2025, a day after the Indo-Pakistani conflict came to a halt. At the time Lt. Gen. Ghai had paid homage to “five fallen colleagues and brothers from the armed forces” in addition to civilians.

Last August's press release lists the awards the six personnel had received, though it did not distinguish them as having been killed during Operation Sindoor. It says that Subedar Major Pawan Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar, Agniveer Mood Muralinaik and Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh were awarded the Sena Medal (Gallantry), that Rifleman Sunil Kumar was awarded the Vir Chakra, and that IAF Sergeant Surendra Kumar was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry).

Names of the military personnel who died in the line of duty during Operation Sindoor in 2025, inscribed on a wall at the National War Memorial. Photo: PTI/Kunal Dutt

“With regard to the engraving of the names of the fallen soldiers on the National War Memorial, it is emphasised that this sacred process is governed by an established and well-defined protocol,” it continued. “Any suggestion that due process was not followed is factually incorrect.”

Although the six personnel's deaths had been reported in the media in May itself, Singh had told Lok Sabha on July 28 last year that “no soldiers were harmed”.

“Members of the opposition have been asking how many of our [planes went down]. I feel that their question does not properly represent our national public sentiment. This is what I feel. Not even once did they ask us how many of the enemy's planes our armed forces hit!

“If they really must ask a question, their question should be, ‘did India destroy terrorist hideouts?’ The answer to that is yes. I want to tell the opposition that if you have to ask a question, then ask this question: was Operation Sindoor successful? The answer is yes. If you have a question to ask, ask this: Have the terrorists who wiped the sindoor off our sisters and daughters been dealt with by our forces in Operation Sindoor, eliminating their masters? The answer is yes.

“If you have a question to ask, ask this: were any of our brave soldiers harmed in this operation? The answer is no, none of our soldiers were harmed.”

But Singh's ministry on Saturday claimed that he was specifically referring to the fact that India did not lose any pilots during Operation Sindoor, terming reports around his parliamentary address against the backdrop of the National War Memorial honour as “deliberately misleading and factually incorrect”.

Singh, it said, made the remarks in the context of a “specific mischievous narrative” claiming that Indian pilots were lost during Operation Sindoor. “His remarks were, therefore, a targeted and contextually specific response to a falsehood that was gaining dangerous traction at that moment,” the ministry said, alleging that behind this ‘narrative’ was the “clear intent of diminishing the success of the operation and demoralising public sentiment”.

However Singh had not referred to pilots in his remark.

His remarks did occur against the background of Pakistan claiming on May 7, the first day of Operation Sindoor itself, that its forces shot down five Indian fighters (it has since revised this figure upwards). While India later acknowledged losses, officials including then-Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan have said that Indian losses were fewer than Islamabad's statements claimed. New Delhi has not specified how many fighter jets it lost during the operation.

At the same time the Modi government has referred to the armed forces' actions after the strikes on nine terrorist-linked sites early on May 7 – such as its attack on Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan air base on May 10, for example – as being part of Operation Sindoor, so Singh's remarks could not have referred solely to the action of the first day.

While the government later acknowledged “casualties”, it did not cite any names or the number of casualties.

“Most of the six casualties took place in Jammu and Kashmir,” a defence ministry official told The Telegraph.

Media reports from the time indicate that the six personnel were killed in cross-border attacks.

Reacting to the delayed announcement, the Congress said it was a “shame” that a government that flaunts its nationalism had denied the bravehearts the honour they deserved for a year.

“These are the brave sons of India who laid down their lives defending India’s honour and the sindoor of our sisters after the Pahalgam attack. Their names should have been etched into the national consciousness. Their families should have seen a grateful nation honouring their sacrifice,” Congress media and publicity head Pawan Khera said in a post on X.

“Instead, for an entire year, the BJP government chose to conceal their martyrdom from the nation. The same government that wraps itself in the flag and speaks endlessly of nationalism denied these heroes the recognition and remembrance they deserved. Such a shame!” he added.

Congress secretary Gaurav Pandhi questioned why the defence minister had said no soldiers were harmed and why the names of the six personnel were kept unknown for a year.

“Why this info was hidden from people of India for one year? Why the families of the martyrs were kept away from the honor? Why people of India were not given the opportunity to pay respect to the martyrs for full one year? Why did Rajnath Singh had to lie? One day, the leaders of the BJP will have to explain this to the people of India, through the court of law,” he said on X.

Some military veterans also highlighted the fact that the general practice in all modern armies has been to update the list of soldiers who were injured, missing or killed in action as soon as a headcount is done.

"In 1971 War casualty list for past 24 hrs was formally given to the media everyday. This has been the practice in all modern armies since the dawn of the 20th Century. In 1962 KIA/MIA/WIA lists were updated as soon as units took a count after the rout," Lieutenant General (retired) H.S. Panag wrote on X.

Notably, Muralinaik of 851 Light Regiment was the only Agniveer to die during Operation Sindoor. He was killed in Pakistani shelling in Poonch on May 9, 2025. 

His death became the subject of a legal challenge before the Bombay high court, where his family has sought parity in pensionary and welfare benefits of regular soldiers.

The Union government has told the high court that Agniveers are not similarly placed as regular soldiers and hence cannot be given posthumous pensionary benefits.

This article was updated with information on the defence ministry's two press releases.

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