Kumar Bahukhandi
CDS Anil Chauhan -Photo-PTI
CDS Anil Chauhan warned Pakistan and said that we have been facing this proxy war of terrorism for more than two decades and we have lost many people. Now we want to end it.
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Saturday spoke openly on Operation Sindoor and India’s policy against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. In an interview during the Shangri-La Dialogue Security Summit held in Singapore, he said that India’s Operation Sindoor has drawn a new ‘red line’ against terrorism and hoped that the neighbouring country will definitely learn some lessons from the military action.
India-Pak on the brink of war
CDS Anil Chauhan further said that two hands have to be joined to clap, hope they will understand this. Operation Sindoor was started on the morning of 7 May, the aim of which was to destroy nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and PoK in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April. After this, the Pakistani attacks were also responded to under this operation.
The four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan brought the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of war, which ended on 10 May with an agreement to stop military action. When asked about the lessons learnt from this conflict, General Chauhan said that India also used indigenous systems and platforms of other countries during the operation.
Targets up to 300 km inside Pakistan
He said that we were able to target with accuracy up to 300 km inside and Pakistan’s airbases and infrastructure were targeted. This shows our strong air defense capability. General Chauhan said that instability is increasing in the world due to terrorists, they play an important role in promoting conflicts.
Referring to India’s new ‘red line’ against terrorism, General Chauhan said that what India has done politically has drawn a new red line of zero tolerance against terrorism. He said that I hope that our enemies will also get some lessons from this special operation and they will learn that this is the limit of India’s tolerance.
Will not tolerate proxy war anymore
He said that we have been facing this proxy war of terrorism for more than two decades and we have lost many people. Now we want to end it. When asked if India feels there is strategic stability after the operation, the CDS said that to bring strategic stability it takes two hands clapping together and joining together, hopefully they will understand that and then we can look at things.
During this conversation, General Chauhan admitted that India suffered air losses on the initial day. However, he did not give any exact number. On the question related to the loss suffered by India in Operation Sindoor, Anil Chauhan said that the important thing is not how much loss was incurred, but what mistakes were made. He said that the figures are not important, what is important is what we did after that.
He said that we are in a war environment and losses are a part of it. The question is whether we have achieved our objective? The answer is a strong yes. At this time, I would not like to comment on that because we are still in the war and have an edge over the adversary. All our pilots have returned home safely. The CDS rejected the claim of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in which he had said that six Indian planes were shot down.
PM Modi had given a strong message
PM Modi had also strongly attacked this proxy war of Pakistan while addressing a program in Gandhinagar recently. He said that whenever there was a need for war with Pakistan, India’s military power has defeated Pakistan all three times. Pakistan understood that it cannot win against India in a war and that is why it started a proxy war. Terrorists are sent to India after giving them military training and innocent people are targeted. Whenever Pakistan got a chance, it kept killing and we kept tolerating it.
He said that after what was seen after 6 May, we cannot make the mistake of calling it a proxy war. The reason for this is that in Pakistan, the funeral of terrorists was given state honours, Pakistani flags were placed on the coffins, their army saluted, hence it cannot be called a proxy war now. Terrorist activity is no longer a proxy war but a war under a well thought out strategy and it will be answered accordingly.
