Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has strongly rejected recent claims by the Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief that Pakistani aircraft were destroyed during Operation Sindoor, calling the assertions “implausible” and “ill-timed.”
In a sharp statement posted on social media, Asif said it was “ironic” that senior Indian military officers were being “used as the faces of monumental failure caused by the strategic shortsightedness of Indian politicians.” He noted that for three months after the operation, no such claims had been made, while Pakistan had presented “detailed technical briefings” to international media and independent observers.
According to Asif, credible sources — including world leaders, senior Indian politicians, and foreign intelligence assessments — acknowledged that India had lost multiple aircraft, including Rafales, during the operation. He stressed that “not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed”, while Pakistan allegedly destroyed six Indian jets, S-400 air defence batteries, unmanned aircraft, and put several Indian airbases out of action.
The minister claimed that Indian forces suffered “disproportionately heavier” losses along the Line of Control (LoC). He challenged India to open its aircraft inventories to independent verification, arguing such transparency would “lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure.”
Asif warned that “wars are not won by falsehoods but by moral authority, national resolve and professional competence,” adding that “comical narratives” crafted for domestic politics risk dangerous miscalculations in a nuclearised South Asia.
Citing Pakistan’s Operation Bunyanum Marsoos as an example, Asif concluded that every violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty “will invite swift, surefire and proportionate response,” with the responsibility for any escalation resting “entirely with strategically blind leaders who gamble with South Asia’s peace.”
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