India admits Pakistan shot down fighter jets

SINGAPORE: India’s top military official has acknowledged that Pakistan shot down several Indian fighter jets during a recent military confrontation over Kashmir.

General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces, made the rare admission in an interview with Bloomberg during an international summit in Singapore.

He did not mention the exact number of aircraft lost but stressed that the crisis “never came close” to a nuclear conflict.

“The issue isn’t just that the jets were shot down, but the reason behind it,” Chauhan said, without elaborating further.

Adding weight to the disclosure, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy claimed that Pakistan downed five Indian jets, including Rafale aircraft, during the four-day standoff.

Swamy, a known critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, slammed his own party for its failure to act decisively after the deadly April 22 attack in Pahalgam, where 26 tourists were killed.

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Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours spiked after the Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). India responded by firing missiles at civilian sites and mosques in six Pakistani cities on May 7.

Pakistan swiftly retaliated. The Pakistan Air Force shot down six Indian aircraft and, on May 10, launched Operation Bunaynum Marsoos, targeting dozens of Indian military sites. The offensive forced India to seek a ceasefire, which Pakistan agreed to.