New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday, May 12, trashed social media rumours that it hit Pakistan’s Kirana Hills, which reportedly has a nuclear facility.
“Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installations. We did not know about it. We have not hit Kirana Hills. I did not brief in my briefing yesterday,” Director General of Air Operations Air Marshal AK Bharti said at a media briefing on Operation Sindoor.
The previous day, senior military officials of the Army, Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy held a media briefing providing a detailed account of Operation Sindoor launched on May 7. The officers stated that it shot down fighter jets featuring the latest technologies and damaging key military installations close to even the capital Islamabad, during the three-day confrontation between the two sides.
“Our fight was against terrorism and terrorists. That is why, on May 7, we targeted only terrorist hideouts. Unfortunately, the Pakistani military chose to support the terrorists and made this fight their own,” Air Marshal Bharti said.
“In such a situation, our retaliatory action became absolutely necessary, and whatever damage they suffered, they are solely responsible for it. On our part, our defence systems stood like a wall for the nation, making it impossible for the enemy to breach them,” he said.
India maintains that its actions were measured and precise, aimed solely at neutralising terror threats, with no intent to escalate tensions or provoke nuclear brinkmanship.
Air Marshal Bharti also said that all its military bases and systems will continue to remain fully operational and ready to undertake any further missions if the need arises. “We have also iterated that our fight was with terrorists and their support infrastructure,” he said.
India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ early May 7 to destroy seven terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir(PoK) in a strong retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Operation Sindoor a stellar success: Air Marshal
Air Marshal Bharti said another highlight of ‘Operation Sindoor’ has been the stellar performance of indigenous AD weapons like the Akash system. The IAF also showed some images of damage inflicted by the Indian military on Pakistan.
Vice Admiral Pramod said the Indian Navy maintains a credible capability to detect, identify and neutralise any aerial platforms that threaten the naval units at sea. Indian Navy’s carrier battle group, submarines and aviation assets were immediately deployed at sea with full combat readiness in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack
“In the current standoff, the presence of our aircraft carrier with a large number of Mig-29 K fighters and airborne early warning helicopters prevented any suspicious or hostile aircraft from closing the carrier battle group within several hundred km,” Vice Admiral Pramod said.
“Over the past few years, and most importantly immediately after the cowardly incident by the Pakistani-sponsored terrorist attack at Pahalgam, we had validated our anti-missile and anti-aircraft defence capability in a complex threat environment using a cross-platform cooperative mechanism,” he added.
Lt Gen Ghai said there has been total synergy between the three services during Operation Sindoor.
IAF refuses to confirm Rafale Jet loss
Air Marshal AK Bharti declined to share specifics regarding reports of Rafale jets being downed or the number of assets lost, citing ongoing security concerns.
“At this time, I would not like to comment on operational specifics because we are still in a combat situation. Anything I say could be an advantage to the adversary, and we do not want to give any advantage at this stage,” he said, adding, “All I can say is that we have achieved all our objectives that we selected and that all our pilots are back home.”
When asked whether Indian forces had shot down Pakistani fighter jets, Bharti responded, “As I said, their planes were prevented from coming inside our border. So, we don’t have wreckage with us, but definitely, we have downed a few Pakistani planes.”
(With PTI inputs)
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Veena Nair | 
