Pakistan’s air chief, Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sindhu, on Tuesday again asserted that Pakistani forces shot down several modern Indian aircraft and a defence system during the May clashes with India, but offered no evidence to support the claim. Sindhu made the assertion while speaking at the passing-out parade of the Pakistan Air Force Academy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, describing the May fighting as a “fierce aerial engagement.”
He named Rafales, Su-30MKIs, Mirage 2000s, MiG-29s and unmanned aerial systems among the Indian platforms he said were shot down, and said Pakistani forces struck Indian bases and ground assets “from north to south,” also neutralising what he called an S-400 air-defence system and command-and-control centres. Pakistan has repeatedly made similar claims about downed Indian aircraft since the May hostilities; independent verification of those assertions has not been presented.
Sindhu’s remarks followed an October statement by India’s Air Chief Marshal AP Singh that Indian strikes during Operation Sindoor had destroyed or damaged at least a dozen Pakistani military aircraft, including US-origin F-16s and Chinese-origin JF-17s. Operation Sindoor began on May 7 after an attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians; India says the strikes targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan‑occupied Kashmir. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding to cease military action on May 10.
