Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces General Anil Chauhan on Saturday categorically rejected Pakistan’s claims that it had shot down six Indian warplanes during Operation Sindoor, calling the information “absolutely incorrect”. The CDS added that “what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being downed”.“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,” General Chauhan said during an interview with Bloomberg TV when asked about Pakistan’s claims.“What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” the CDS said, adding: “Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that are important … Numbers are not important.”
During the interview, held in the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, the CDS also refuted US president Donald Trump’s claim that India and Pakistan had come to the verge of a nuclear war during the four-day conflict in early May.General Chauhan 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,” General 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.General Chauhan also played down Pakistan’s claims about the effectiveness of weaponry deployed from China and other countries, saying they “didn’t work”. “We were able to do precision strikes on heavily air-defended airfields of Pakistan deep 300 kilometres inside, with the precision of a meter,” the CDS added.General Chauhan also 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