New Delhi: Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh on Friday (October 3) for the first time provided details of Pakistani fighter jet losses during the four-day-long hostilities in May following Operation Sindoor and said military aircraft including F-16s and JF-17s were struck.

He however provided no details of any losses on the Indian side and termed Pakistani claims of damages suffered by India as “manohar kanhaiyan” (‘fanciful stories’), though Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan had in the past said that some fighter jets were lost, without specifying any number.

Separately, Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi issued a warning to Pakistan and said that if it continues state-sponsored terrorism, it may have to reconsider its place on the globe.

ACM Singh made his remarks while addressing reporters ahead of the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations in Delhi.

Indian strikes hit radars at no fewer than four places, command and control centres at two places and runways at two locations while inflicting damage on three hangars in three different stations, ACM Singh said.

He added: “And in that hangar as well as on the tarmac, we have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft, one AEW&C [airborne early warning and control] class of aircraft and at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s” being damaged.

A surface-to-air missile too was destroyed on the ground, the air force chief said.

Coming to losses India dealt on the air defence front, he said that “we have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about, more than 300 kilometres, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT [signals intelligence] aircraft. Along with those, five fighters, high-tech fighters, between F-16 and JF-17 class, is what our system tells us”.

The F-16 fighter is manufactured by the US, while the JF-17 is designed by China.

In response to Pakistani claims of shooting down Indian jets, Singh described them as “manohar kahaniyan” (‘fanciful stories’).

“Their [Pakistani] narrative is fanciful stories. So let it be, it's good. Let them be happy. They also have to show something to their public to save their reputation. It doesn’t matter to me,” he said.

“I was asked, ‘they said we downed so many jets and you didn't say anything’. I will still not say anything about it. And nor do I want to. If they think they shot down 15 of my jets, let them think so. I hope they are convinced about it, and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again. So why should I talk about it?

“I won’t say anything about it even today; what happened, how much damage was done, how much was not done … We should not say anything, because it should be up to them to find out. We have dug and unearthed what we were able to do. So let them do the same.”

The ACM added that while India provided pictures of the damage it inflicted on Pakistani sites, “they were not able to show even one such picture” of damage dealt to the Indian side.

Following the Pahalgam terror attack in April, in which 26 civilians lost their lives, India had launched Operation Sindoor and struck nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was followed by four-day long military hostilities between India and Pakistan.

While Singh did not provide any details of any Indian losses, Chief of Defence Staff Chauhan had in May said that the Indian Air Force lost some fighter jets in clashes with Pakistan on May 7.

“What is important is that – not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” General Chauhan told Bloomberg Television on May 30 while he was attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

India’s defence attache to Indonesia Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar too had said in June that India had lost jets “only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defenses”.

Pakistan ‘may have to think whether it wants to remain on the globe’

Meanwhile, Army chief General Dwivedi while addressing troops in the forward area of Anupgarh in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district on Friday (October 3) said Pakistan faced existential consequences in choosing to support state-sponsored terrorism.

“This time India is fully prepared and won't show the restraint we showed during [Operation] Sindoor 1.0. This time we will take further action and do so in a way that Pakistan may have to think whether it wants to remain … on the globe or not,” he said.

Referring to Operation Sindoor, the Army chief said that as long as Pakistan sponsors terrorism, India will strike those who support it.

“We had identified only terrorist bases. We have no complaints against ordinary Pakistani citizens, but as long as the country sponsors terrorism, we will strike those who support it,” he was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

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