India's chief of defense staff acknowledges loss of aircraft, but claims tactical mistakes were later rectified

INDIA'S chief of defense staff, general Anil Chauhan, on Saturday (31) appeared to confirm his country had lost at least one aircraft during the brief conflict with Pakistan earlier this month, he said during a couple of media interviews in Singapore.

India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.

More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone, and artillery fire on both sides after India launched Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir.

"I think, what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down," he told Bloomberg TV, speaking on the sidelines of Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore.

"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 added.

"Why they were down - that is more important for us, and what did we do after that," he added.

"We rectified tactics and then went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue meet.

The Indian air force "flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinances on the 10th", he added.

"Most of the strikes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy, some even to a meter, to whatever was our selected mean point of impact," Chauhan said.

India has previously said its missiles and drones struck at least eight Pakistani air bases across the country that day, including one near the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan claimed its Chinese-supplied jets had shot down six Indian aircraft. It had used the J10-C Vigorous Dragon and JF-17 Thunder planes, armed with air-to-air missiles, during its air battle against India.

General Chauhan called Pakistan's claims that it shot down six Indian warplanes "absolutely incorrect".

There was no immediate response from New Delhi.

On May 11, a day after the ceasefire, the director general of air operations, Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, speaking to reporters in Delhi, had said that "all our pilots are back home", adding that "we are in a combat scenario, and that losses are a part of combat".

He also observed that "losses are a part of combat" and that India had downed some Pakistani jets.

Islamabad has denied losing any aircraft but has acknowledged that its air bases suffered some hits, although losses were minimal.

A senior security source told AFP three Indian jets had crashed on home soil without giving the make or cause.

However, until Chauhan's comments on Saturday (31), India had not officially confirmed that any of its aircraft had been lost.

New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the terrorists who attacked tourists, who had come from all parts of India, at the Baisaran meadows in Pahalgam, Kashmir.

The Resistance Front, a proxy of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack

Pakistan has denied involvement in the terrorist attack. (Agencies)