Islamabad, August 9, 2025: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday dismissed recent remarks by the Indian Air Force (IAF) chief alleging the destruction of Pakistani aircraft during May’s Operation Sindoor, calling them “implausible” and “ill-timed.”
The statement came hours after IAF Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh claimed India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one other military aircraft — reportedly a surveillance plane — during clashes between May 7 and 10, describing the strikes as the “largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill.” Singh said most of the aircraft were hit by India’s Russian-made S-400 missile system.
Pakistan has consistently denied losing any aircraft in the conflict, asserting instead that it downed six Indian jets, including a French-made Rafale, destroyed S-400 air defence systems, and disabled several Indian airbases. India has acknowledged some losses but rejected the claim of losing six aircraft.
France’s Air Chief, General Jerome Bellanger, has previously stated that he had seen evidence of three Indian fighter losses, including a Rafale. The IAF has not commented on that claim.
In a post on X, Asif criticised the delayed Indian announcement, saying no such claims were made in the three months following the clashes, while Pakistan had immediately presented technical briefings to the international media. He said independent observers, including world leaders and intelligence agencies, had acknowledged multiple Indian losses.
“It is ironic that senior Indian military officers are being used as faces of a monumental failure caused by the strategic shortsightedness of Indian politicians,” Asif said, adding that “not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed.”
Challenging India to allow independent verification of both countries’ aircraft inventories, Asif warned that “wars are not won by falsehoods” and that misleading narratives for political gain risk “grave strategic miscalculations” in a nuclear environment.
Reaffirming Pakistan’s position, he said that any violation of its sovereignty would invite a “swift, surefire and proportionate response,” with responsibility for escalation resting on “strategically blind leaders who gamble with South Asia’s peace.”
