Pakistan on Saturday dismissed Indian claims of major aerial losses during Operation Sindoor, setting up a fresh round of competing narratives between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. In a strongly worded statement, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif rejected Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh’s assertion that Indian forces had downed six Pakistani military aircraft during the brief but intense conflict in May.
“Not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed by the Indian side,” Asif wrote on social media, accusing New Delhi of revising the story months after the operation had ended. He noted that for three months following the hostilities, “no such claims were voiced,” and pointed out that Pakistan had conducted “detailed technical briefings” for international media in the immediate aftermath. Labeling the IAF chief’s account “implausible” and “ill-timed,” Asif alleged that India had in fact suffered “disproportionately heavier” losses along the Line of Control.
The Pakistani defence minister went further, challenging India to allow independent verification of both countries’ aircraft inventories. “Such transparency,” he argued, “would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure.” He also reiterated Islamabad’s warning that any future violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity would be met with a “swift, surefire, and proportionate response.”
The remarks came just hours after Air Chief Marshal Singh’s lecture in Bengaluru, where the IAF chief provided his most detailed account yet of Operation Sindoor — a retaliatory campaign launched on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. Singh claimed that Indian forces had downed five Pakistani fighter jets and one large airborne surveillance aircraft in what he described as “the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about.”
According to Singh, Indian strikes crippled Pakistan’s air infrastructure, including the destruction of “one half of the F-16 hangar” at Jacobabad airbase, with aircraft inside “surely damaged.” He further alleged that at least one AEW&C aircraft and several F-16s undergoing maintenance were hit, and that two command-and-control centres at Murid and Chaklala, along with six radar installations, were also destroyed. Strikes targeted multiple Pakistani airbases — some still under construction — which Singh said ultimately forced Islamabad to seek a ceasefire after three days of intense hostilities.
The IAF chief credited India’s Russian-made S-400 Triumf air defence system with keeping Pakistani aircraft well outside Indian territory, preventing them from deploying long-range glide bombs. He also presented before-and-after satellite imagery of nine terror launchpads destroyed on May 7, claiming around 100 terrorists were killed without any collateral civilian damage — a claim Pakistan has consistently denied.
Operation Sindoor lasted from May 7 to May 10, concluding when both countries agreed to halt cross-border drone and missile strikes. While India hails the operation as a decisive blow against terrorist infrastructure and a demonstration of its advanced air defence capabilities, Pakistan maintains that its military assets emerged unscathed — a stark reminder that in South Asia’s volatile security environment, the battle over the narrative can be as fierce as the conflict itself.
