Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Saturday said the Indian Air Force (IAF) shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and a large aircraft during Operation Sindoor, describing it as the largest-ever recorded surface-to-air kill by India. The remarks were made at the 16th Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture.
Meanwhile, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, expressed regret that they were not able to convince some people in the country regarding the damage inflicted on terrorist camps during the 2019 Balakot airstrike, despite possessing human intelligence about the same. He informed that the armed forces had intelligence regarding "many terrorists" being killed in the Balakot airstrike across the border.
"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. We had intelligence (human kind of intelligence) on what had gone on inside, where we had a very clear picture of the inside in terms of there having been 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," Air Chief Marshal Singh said while addressing the gathering at the Hal Management Academy.
He stated that a lack of video evidence would have raised similar issues following Operation Sindoor, but now, the videos on the recently concluded military operation are "out in the open".
"Things like this would have given us the same problem (regarding Operation Sindoor). However, we were lucky that we got these videos in the open. So, I'm very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot, and we were able to tell the world what we have achieved," the Air Chief Marshal said. Praising India's decision to "stop the war," he said that the only aim of Operation Sindoor was to "teach terrorists a lesson" and once the objectives were achieved India looked for opportunities to "stop" the conflict.
Earlier, some of the opposition parties and leaders have raised questions regarding the 2019 Balakot air strikes, which were carried out in response to the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of at least 40 CRPF soldiers.
"People got down to their egos in the war, and that is what is continuously driving the ongoing conflicts. We set a very good example. Our objective was very clear: to teach terrorists a lesson. Once we achieved our objective, we should have looked for all windows of opportunity to stop that. 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," Air Chief Marshal Singh added.
On May 2, Congress MP and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi cast doubts over Balakot surgical strikes, saying that he has always demanded proof for it.
Channi had said in a press conference, "Till date, I could not find where the (surgical) strike took place, where men were killed at that time, and where this happened in Pakistan. Will we not find out if a bomb is dropped in our country? They say that they did a surgical strike in Pakistan. Nothing had happened. Nowhere was a surgical strike seen. Nobody came to know."
*With Agency Inputs
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