'India Lost on Day One of Operation Sindoor’, Prithviraj Chavan

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said that India suffered a defeat on the very first day of Operation Sindoor and that Indian Air Force aircraft were shot down.

Addressing a press conference in Pune on Tuesday, Chavan said that during the nearly half-hour long aerial engagement on May 7, Indian aircraft were not in a position to take off as there was a serious threat of being shot down by Pakistan. Due to this risk, the Air Force was completely grounded. He claimed that if any aircraft had taken off from Gwalior, Bathinda or Sirsa, there was a strong possibility of it being brought down.

Chavan further said that during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a one-kilometre movement of the Army on the ground. The conflict remained limited to air and missile strikes. This, he said, raises questions about whether future wars would require a large ground force of 12 lakh soldiers, suggesting that the Army could also be deployed for other purposes.

Pakistan claimed six aircraft were shot down:

On September 17, at an event organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Pakistan Army’s retired Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai claimed that Pakistan had shot down Indian fighter jets, including four Rafale aircraft.

Kidwai said that during Operation Sindoor, a total of seven Indian aircraft were brought down, not six. He claimed these included four Rafales, one MiG-29, one Sukhoi-30 and one Mirage 2000.

Indian Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh rejected Pakistan’s claims of shooting down Indian aircraft, including a Rafale fighter jet, calling them propaganda meant to mislead the Pakistani public. Speaking in October, he said Pakistan had in fact lost at least four fighter aircraft during the conflict, including US made F-16s and Chinese JF-17 jets.

Operation Sindoor:

On April 22, terrorists shot dead 26 people in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. In response, India carried out Operation Sindoor on the night of May 6–7. India launched 24 missiles and conducted airstrikes on nine terror targets located in Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) and inside Pakistan in which around 100 terrorists were killed. A ceasefire between the two countries came into effect on May 10.