India confirms losing fighter jets in recent conflict with Pakistan: Bloomberg
Says the four-day conflict never came close to the point of nuclear war
Highlights:
- India confirms losing fighter jets in recent clashes with Pakistan in May
- Armed Forces chief says: "Why they were down, what mistakes were made — that are important"
- Calls Pakistan's claim of shooting down six warplanes "absolutely incorrect"
- Says India understood tactical mistakes, remedied them, and flew jets again
- CNN report earlier cited French official confirming Pakistan downed an Indian Rafale
The Indian military has confirmed losing an unspecified number of fighter jets during its clashes with Pakistan in May, reports Bloomberg.
"What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down," Indian Armed Forces Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan said in an interview with Bloomberg TV today (31 May).
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The interview took place while he was attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, an inter-governmental security conference held annually in Singapore by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
During the interview, Anil also called Pakistan's claims of shooting down six Indian warplanes "absolutely incorrect."
"Why they were down, what mistakes were made — that are important," Chauhan said when asked about the fighter jets. "Numbers are not important," he added.
"The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range," Chauhan said.
This is, for the first time, a direct confirmation of Indian fighter jets getting downed during the conflict.
This is the first confirmation from an Indian official on the downing of its fighter jets during the four-day-long conflict that started on 7 May.
In the aftermath of India's "Operation Sindoor" on 7 May, Islamabad had claimed to have downed multiple fighter jets, including the prized Dassault Rafale.
Pakistan's claims marked a historic first, as the Rafale, since entering service with the French Navy in 2004 and French Air Force in 2006, has not been publicly acknowledged as having been lost in combat over the last two decades.
Adding a twist to the unfolding situation, a CNN report cited a high-ranking French intelligence official who confirmed the Pakistani claim of downing an Indian Rafale.
This reported confirmation from a senior intelligence figure in France, the Rafale's country of origin, carries significant weight.
The French official told CNN that French authorities were looking into whether more than one Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan overnight.
