Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, on Saturday, said that the Indian Armed Forces had destroyed at least five Pakistani fighter aircraft and one large aircraft during Operation Sindoor.
The Air Chief revealed information about India's damage to Pakistan's defence capabilities while addressing an event at the Hal Management Academy in Bengaluru on Saturday.
"We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT aircraft or an AEW &C aircraft, which was taken on at a distance of about 300 kilometres. This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about," Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.
Listing other damages on Pakistan's defence capabilities, the Air Chief said, "We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars, some of them big, some of them small. Two SAGW systems that is in Lahore and Okara. We attacked three hangars. One was the Sukkur UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar and the Jacobabad F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance there."
The Air chief said that it was a high-tech war.
"In 80 to 90 hours of war, we were able to achieve so much damage that it was clear to them that if they continue, they are going to pay for it more and more. So they came forward and sent a message to our DGMO that they wanted to talk. This was accepted on our side...," he said.
Backing the government’s decision to pause Operation Sindoor, the Chief of Air Staff said, "People got down to their egos in this war... Once we achieved our objective, we should have looked for all windows of opportunity to stop... Some people very close to me said, 'Aur maarna tha'. But can we continue to be at war?... The nation has taken a good decision."
On the Balakot attack, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, "...In Balakot, we could not get anything from inside, and it became a big issue trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, as to what we have been able to achieve.”
The IAF chief said that the forces had intelligence of what had gone on inside, had human kind of intelligence where the forces had very clear picture of inside in terms of there's had been a huge damage.
“There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that...So I'm very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot that we were able to tell the world what we have achieved," the Air chief said.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.
Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases, including Nur Khan air base in Pakistan. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, 16 people have been killed due to Pakistani shelling, and 59 others have been injured.