India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan confirmed on Saturday that his country’s fighter jets were shot down by Pakistan during the four-day conflict earlier in the month.

Indian fighter jets were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force on the night of May 6-7 in response to the Indian Air Force’s late-night missile strikes at six Pakistani sites, including Subhan Mosque in Bahawalpur’s Ahmedpur East, Bilal Mosque in Muzaffarabad, Abbas Mosque in Kotli, Umalkura Mosque in Muridke, the village of Kotki Lohara in Sialkot district, and Shakargarh.

Pakistan took down six Indian jets, including three advanced French Rafale planes. According to a Dawn report, the recent clash between India and Pakistan marks a significant development in the regional air power constellation. Three Rafales, one Su-30MKI, one Mirage 2000 and one MiG-29 were downed within a 40-minute span. Not one Pakistani jet crossed the border or engaged in close combat.

While speaking to Bloomberg at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, General Chauhan said, “I think what is important is not the jets being downed but why the jets were shot down.”

In response to a query by the show’s host, he confirmed that Indian fighter jets were shot down during the recent escalation between the two countries.

He emphasised that the reasons why the Indian jets were shot down and what the Indian forces did after that were more important.

General Chauhan also claimed that the four-day conflict never came close to the point of nuclear war.

American and French officials also confirmed that Pakistan shot down an Indian jet using fighter aircraft it acquired from China, CNN and Reuters reported earlier in the month.

CNN cited a senior US official saying, as per their assessment, Pakistani forces shot down the jet during India’s air strikes inside Pakistan.

A high-ranking French intelligence official also told CNN that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan.

Earlier in the month, American newspaper The Washington Post also verified visual evidence that at least two French-made Indian fighter aircraft were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force.

The paper based its findings on analyses by former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician Trevor Ball, Etienne Marcuz, an associate fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research and an anonymous French air power expert.

“In a review of more than a dozen images and videos posted online in the aftermath of the strikes, The Post verified debris consistent with at least two French-made fighter jets flown by the Indian Air Force — a Rafale and a Mirage 2000,” The Post reported.

After intercepting drones sent by India on May 8 and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases on the night of May 9-10, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.

The US-brokered ceasefire had brought a halt to a week of record escalation between Pakistan and India as the latter took a series of unprovoked military actions despite Islamabad’s call for a neutral probe into India’s allegations over the Pahalgam attack.

Source: Dawn