Ranchi: The best time to strike the nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir would have been 5.30 am or 6 am on May 7, but India decided on the 1.30 am – 2 am slot to avoid civilian casualties, Gen Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), told students in Ranchi.
This was for the first time that a senior military official went into so much detail about Operation Sindoor.
The CDS said the time was carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties. “The best (option) would have been the time of 5.30 am or 6 am… But that time of first Azan or Namaz… many civilian lives would have been lost. We wanted to avoid that completely,” he said.
Weather was a factor that has to be taken into consideration, the general said.
“India was monitoring the neighbouring nation’s flying activities for some time and chose the strike on the night of May 7, as the weather was clear with no rain prediction,” he said.
The CDS said that the Navy was equally involved in the operation, deploying anti-missile systems and marine commandos in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and the Arabian Sea during Operation Sindoor.
“We have normally read that the Army engaged seven targets and the Air Force two. Very few people know that the Navy was also involved in Operation Sindoor. The Navy has capabilities to attack far-reaching targets with loitering ammunition….They used their weapons in a precise manner for army targets,” Gen Chauhan said.
The CDS highlighted how Operation Sindoor was distinct from others like Balakot. Unlike previous strikes, the armed forces were able to gather concrete evidence of damage this time.
“We carried out the Balakot operation, but we didn’t have satellite images or photos… But what we did at 1 am now (Operation Sindoor) despite difficulty in collecting evidence in darkness of night, was due to twin reasons – first, we had confidence in our capabilities that we can take imagery, and the second, we wanted to avoid civilian casualties,” he said.
The general said how a building that seemed to be an old health centre at the Sarjal village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, was one of the targets. Technical intelligence confirmed it as a base for repeated terrorist infiltrations.
“The precision strike neutralised a key node in the adversary’s network, reflecting the effectiveness of a technology-led approach,” the general said.
The CDS went on to explain how the strike was not limited to the land and air domains but also extended to the seas, electromagnetic space, and cyberspace.
“Unlike traditional warfare, this was fought in land, air, sea, electromagnetic space and cyber domains, where the adversary was seen only through the help of satellite and electronic images or signal intelligence,” he said.
Operation Sindoor marked a paradigm shift in how victory is defined, he said.
“Till now, we have assumed victory in terms of capture of territory, the number of equipment destroyed, or number of prisoners of war you have captured or soldiers you have killed… These were associated with traditional ways of fighting warfare,” he said.
According to him, success is now measured by sophistication, deterrence, and dominance across multiple domains.
“Modern warfare demands that we fight today’s conflicts with tomorrow’s technology. The battlespace is no longer limited to traditional domains of land, air, and sea and has expanded to include space, cyber, the electromagnetic spectrum, and even the cognitive domain,” he added.