NEW DELHI: India’s military confirmed for the first time that it lost an unspecified number of fighter jets in clashes with Pakistan in May, while saying the four-day conflict never came close to the point of nuclear war.
"What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Anil Chauhan, chief of defence staff of the Indian Armed Forces, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Saturday (May 31), while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
He called Pakistan’s claims that it shot down six Indian warplanes "absolutely incorrect,” though declined to specify how many jets India lost.
"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.
The comments are the most direct yet from an Indian government or military official on the fate of the country’s fighter jets during the conflict with Pakistan that erupted on May 7.
Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country shot down six Indian fighter jets, an assertion that hasn’t been independently verified. India’s government had earlier refrained from commenting on whether it lost aircraft in the fighting.
The clash was the worst between the nuclear-armed neighbours in half a century, with both sides trading air, drone and missile strikes, as well as artillery and small arms fire along their shared border. It was triggered by a gruesome attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22, which saw gunmen kill 26 civilians in what India called an act of terrorism orchestrated by Pakistan. Leaders in Islamabad denied involvement.
Chauhan declined to comment on President Donald Trump’s claim that the US helped to avert a nuclear war, but said it was "far-fetched” to suggest either side was close to using atomic weapons.
"I personally feel that there is a lot of space between conduct of conventional operations and the nuclear threshold,” Chauhan said. Channels of communication with Pakistan "were always open” to control the situation, he added, noting that on the escalation ladder there were "more sub-ladders which can be exploited for settling out our issues” without needing to resort to nuclear weapons.
Chauhan also downplayed Pakistan’s claims about the effectiveness of weaponry deployed from China and other countries, saying they "didn’t work.” A research group under India’s Defense Ministry said this month that China provided Pakistan with air defence and satellite support during its clash with India.
"We were able to do precision strikes on heavily air-defended airfields of Pakistan deep 300 kilometres inside, with the precision of a metre,” the Indian military chief said.
India and Pakistan have sent delegations to global capitals to influence international perception of the conflict. Chauhan said the cessation of hostilities is holding, and will depend on Pakistan’s actions in the future.
"We have laid clear red lines,” he said. - Bloomberg
