Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan’s latest revelations provide fresh insight into the planning, execution and lessons of Operation Sindoor — including Indian military casualties, aircraft losses, the role of China, and an unintended strike near Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure.
In response to a NationalDefence question about Indian military personnel casualties during Operation Sindoor, General Anil Chauhan said:
“The casualties which we suffered — obviously, every soldier we lose is important, especially from the point of view of the family of the soldier. I am not trying to trivialize it. But considering the context of this particular operation, these four or five casualties happened during the trans-LoC fire. And this trans-LoC firing — of course, there has been a ceasefire since 2023, I think. But before that, in trans-LoC fire, people would get injured. So in this, there was highlighted trans-LoC firing for those four-five days. And obviously, such kind of casualties are expected, and no one denied this. Actually, no one asked! The issue is, no one asked because everyone thought it was too less considering the scale of this operation. It only came about later.”
Gen Chauhan’s response is significant because it provides a direct explanation from the former CDS about the circumstances surrounding the Indian military personnel casualties during the four-day conflict. He specifically linked the four or five casualties he was discussing to trans-Line of Control firing, rather than to the air combat that subsequently became the focus of much of the public debate over Operation Sindoor.
His observation that “no one asked” and that the issue “only came about later” also raises a larger question about how the human cost of the operation was communicated publicly, particularly when the names of six Armed Forces personnel were subsequently inscribed on the National War Memorial more than a year after the operation.
Shailesh Kumar, National Defence
New Delhi, 25 August 2026
More than a year after Operation Sindoor, former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has offered fresh insight into the military operation — from Indian losses and battlefield adaptation to the accidental strike near Pakistan’s Kirana Hills. But one of the most consequential questions surrounding the operation concerns the Indian servicemen who lost their lives, whose names were formally made public only in June 2026.
Operation Sindoor was presented to the country as a carefully calibrated military response to the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack. India launched strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, and the confrontation subsequently expanded into a wider military exchange involving aircraft, missiles, drones, artillery and air-defence systems.
The operation ended with a halt in hostilities on May 10.
Yet some of its most important revelations have emerged much later.
A question by National Defence surrounding Operation Sindoor: Indian military casualties and subsequent reply by former CDS General Anil Chauhan assumed significant because the public account of the operation evolved considerably between May 2025 and June 2026.
While senior military officials acknowledged that personnel had been killed during the fighting, the identities of six personnel were not formally released publicly until their names appeared on the Roll of Honour at the National War Memorial in June 2026.
That development also revived questions over a statement made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament in July 2025, when he said that no Indian soldiers had suffered casualties during the operation.
The issue is therefore not simply about numbers. It is about what was known, what was publicly disclosed, and how the official narrative changed over time.
The question of Indian military casualties
During the Vimarsh discussion on Op Sindoor, National Defence put the question of Indian military casualties directly to General Anil Chauhan, who was Chief of Defence Staff during Operation Sindoor.
The question assumes greater importance in light of what became public later.
On June 26, 2026, the Government formally released the names of six military personnel who died in the line of duty during Operation Sindoor. Five belonged to the Indian Army and one to the Indian Air Force. Their names were inscribed on the Tyag Chakra at the National War Memorial in New Delhi. The Government also published their names in the Roll of Honour.
The six martyrs were:
* Subedar Major Pawan Kumar , Headquarters 10 Infantry Brigade
* Rifleman Sunil Kumar , 4 Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry, recipient of the Vir Chakra
* Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar , 5 Field Regiment
* Aviation Technician Mood Muralinaik , 851 Light Regiment
* Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh , 237 Field Workshop Company
* Sergeant Surendra Kumar , 39 Wing, Indian Air Force, recipient of the Vayu Medal
The formal publication of their names was the first time the Government publicly identified the six together as personnel who died during Operation Sindoor.
That disclosure became politically significant because of what Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had told Parliament months earlier.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement in Parliament
On July 28, 2025, approximately two-and-a-half months after the fighting had stopped, Rajnath Singh addressed the Lok Sabha during a major discussion on Operation Sindoor.
The Defence Ministry’s official account of the speech records that Singh said that none of the soldiers suffered casualties during the operation .
In the fuller wording reported from his parliamentary intervention, Singh said:
“If you want to ask the question, then ask whether any of our brave soldiers were harmed in this operation? The answer is, no, none of our soldiers were harmed.”
The statement subsequently became the centre of a political controversy after the six names were made public in June 2026.
Opposition leaders argued that the later disclosure contradicted the Defence Minister’s parliamentary statement and accused the Government of concealing the deaths of servicemen.
But the Defence Ministry has strongly disputed that interpretation.
What the Defence Ministry says
Following the controversy, the Ministry of Defence said that the Defence Minister’s July 2025 statement had been taken out of context.
According to the Ministry, Singh was addressing a specific narrative circulating at the time that Indian pilots had been killed during the air battle. The Ministry said his remarks were intended to rebut that particular claim and were not a declaration that no Armed Forces personnel had died in any circumstances during the broader military confrontation.
The Ministry also pointed out that the deaths had not been completely undisclosed.
On May 11, 2025, during an official press conference, then Director General of Military Operations Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai paid tribute to fallen personnel and referred to five members of the Armed Forces who had died.
The Government also said the personnel were subsequently recognised through gallantry awards, with the awards announced in August 2025.
This creates an important distinction.
It is not accurate to say that the Government never acknowledged that Indian servicemen had died .
What remained undisclosed publicly for more than a year were the names and formal identification of the six personnel as Operation Sindoor fatalities.
That distinction is crucial for understanding the controversy.
The six names and the National War Memorial
The June 2026 inscription at the National War Memorial nevertheless marked a major development.
The six names were added to Wall 3D of the Tyag Chakra , providing a permanent official record of their sacrifice. Reports described this as the first formal public release of the identities of the six personnel since Operation Sindoor.
The development also demonstrated that the human cost of Operation Sindoor extended beyond the aerial losses that dominated the public debate immediately after the conflict.
For much of the post-operation discussion, attention had focused on whether Indian fighter aircraft had been shot down, how many had been lost, and whether Pakistan’s claim of six Indian aircraft losses was credible.
The later identification of six fallen military personnel added another dimension to the story.
Gen. Chauhan and the aircraft-loss question
General Chauhan’s earlier comments provide important context for understanding the air battle.
In an interview with Reuters on May 31, 2025, Chauhan acknowledged that India suffered losses in the air during the initial phase of the conflict. He did not disclose the number or type of aircraft involved.
Rather than focusing on the number, Chauhan emphasised the operational lesson.
He said the important question was why the losses occurred and what India did afterwards. He explained that the Indian military “rectified tactics” and subsequently returned to operations on May 7, 8 and 10, including attacks against Pakistani air bases deep inside the country.
This was a significant admission because Pakistan had claimed that six Indian aircraft had been shot down, including three Rafales. Chauhan did not endorse that figure.
Instead, his comments indicated that Indian forces had suffered some initial losses but had subsequently modified their tactics.
The distinction is important: Chauhan acknowledged aircraft losses, but he did not confirm Pakistan’s figure of six.
From initial setbacks to deeper strikes
According to Chauhan, the response to the initial losses was tactical adaptation.
The Indian side changed the way it employed its aircraft and weapons and subsequently carried out deeper strikes against Pakistani military infrastructure.
Reuters reported Chauhan saying that after the tactical changes, Indian aircraft penetrated Pakistani air defences and conducted precision strikes. He also said the Indian Air Force flew different aircraft types with different weapons during the May 10 operations.
The episode illustrates an important feature of modern air warfare.
The outcome of an operation is not necessarily determined by the first engagement. The ability to identify an operational weakness, understand the enemy’s air-defence architecture and modify tactics can fundamentally change the balance of a campaign.
Operation Sindoor therefore became a real-world test of India’s ability to adapt under combat conditions.
Was China directly helping Pakistan?
Another major question surrounding the conflict was China’s role.
Pakistan operates a large fleet of Chinese-origin combat aircraft, air-defence systems, radars and other military equipment. That led to speculation that China may have provided direct operational assistance to Pakistan during the fighting.
But General Chauhan’s own assessment was more restrained.
In his May 31 Reuters interview, he said India had seen no unusual activity along its northern borders while the conflict was unfolding. Asked about the possibility of Chinese satellite imagery or real-time intelligence being supplied to Pakistan, he noted that such imagery was commercially available and could have been obtained from China or other sources.
This is an important distinction.
Pakistan’s use of Chinese military equipment does not by itself establish direct Chinese military intervention.
At the same time, later reporting indicated that Indian military officials had raised allegations about Chinese assistance. National Defence subsequently reported that India’s Deputy Army Chief Lieutenant General Rahul Singh while speaking at a program organised by FICCI had alleged that Pakistan received “live inputs” from China during the fighting, although he did not provide evidence and Pakistan denied the allegation.
The evidence therefore supports a much more nuanced conclusion than the simple claim of a confirmed China-Pakistan military alliance operating against India during Operation Sindoor.
The Kirana Hills revelation
The latest and potentially most consequential revelation from General Chauhan concerns Pakistan’s Kirana Hills.
Speaking on August 25, 2026, Chauhan said India did not deliberately target Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure at Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor. Instead, he explained that an Indian loitering munition searching for radar targets may have inadvertently struck one of the hills in the area.
According to his account, the weapon had initially been associated with a mission around Sargodha. The operational plan subsequently changed, and the intended target shifted toward Bholari. The munition apparently failed to find its radar target and, after exhausting its loitering time or fuel, eventually struck the Kirana Hills area.
The significance of the revelation is enormous because Kirana Hills has long been associated with Pakistan’s strategic and nuclear infrastructure.
But Gen Chauhan’s explanation also makes clear that this should not be described as an intentional Indian attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.
That distinction matters greatly in the context of nuclear escalation.
What Operation Sindoor ultimately revealed
Taken together, the revelations paint a more complicated picture of Operation Sindoor than the immediate post-conflict narratives suggested.
India suffered initial aircraft losses. The military adapted its tactics and subsequently conducted deeper strikes. Six Indian Armed Forces personnel ultimately had their names formally added to the National War Memorial’s Roll of Honour. The identities of those six were not publicly released together until June 2026.
At the same time, the Government disputes the characterization that the casualties were deliberately concealed. It points to the May 11, 2025, tribute by the DGMO and subsequent gallantry awards as evidence that the sacrifices were acknowledged within the official system.
The controversy over Rajnath Singh’s July 2025 statement remains because the wording was broad, while the Government’s later explanation interprets it more narrowly as a response to claims about Indian pilots.
For the public, however, the chronology is difficult to ignore:
May 2025 — Operation Sindoor and military deaths.
May 11, 2025 — DGMO pays tribute to fallen personnel.
July 28, 2025 — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tells Parliament that no soldiers were harmed during the operation.
August 2025 — Gallantry awards for Operation Sindoor personnel are announced.
June 2026 — Names of six personnel are formally released and inscribed at the National War Memorial.
August 2026 — Former CDS Gen. Anil Chauhan provides new details about the operation, including the possible accidental impact at Kirana Hills.
To National Defence question, General Anil Chauhan said, “The casualties, which we suffered- obviously every soldier we loose is important especially from the point of view of the family of the soldier.
I am not trying to trivialize it. But considering the context of this particular operation. These 4 or 5 casualties happened during the trans LC (Line of Control) fire. And this trans LC firing off course there has been a ceasefire on since 2023, I think.
But before that in trans LC fire people would get injured. So in this there was a highlighted trans LC firing for those 4- 5 days. And obviously such kind of casualties are expected and no one denied this. Actually no one asked!
The issue is no one asked because everyone thought it was too less considering the scale of this operation. It only came about later”.
This timeline is central to understanding why questions about Operation Sindoor have persisted long after the guns fell silent.
The larger lesson
Operation Sindoor was not simply a story about missiles striking terrorist infrastructure.
It was a test of India’s military doctrine, air power, intelligence, precision weapons, air defence, electronic warfare and command decision-making under the pressure of a conflict between two nuclear-armed neighbours.
It also exposed the enormous importance of information management.
In a modern conflict, battlefield events and the public narrative about those events can diverge rapidly. Aircraft losses, military casualties, tactical mistakes, enemy assistance and sensitive targets can all become subjects of competing claims.
General Anil Chauhan’s disclosures provide some additional pieces of that puzzle.
His comments acknowledge the reality of initial Indian air losses while explaining how tactics were changed. His assessment of Chinese involvement stops short of confirming direct Chinese operational assistance. And his latest explanation of the Kirana Hills incident suggests that a potentially sensitive strike near Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure was accidental rather than deliberate.
But perhaps the most human revelation is the appearance of six names on the National War Memorial.
Behind the aircraft, missiles, radars and strategic calculations were servicemen who did not return home.
Their names are now permanently recorded.
National Defence siting credible Government and Military sources reported that at least 15 Indians killed and over 43 injured in Pakistan’s retaliatory LC firing during operation Sindoor.
(File 7th May 2026)
For National Defence, that is ultimately the most important lesson from the continuing Operation Sindoor story: military operations are measured not only by targets destroyed and objectives achieved, but also by the lives sacrificed in carrying them out — and by how honestly those sacrifices are remembered.
Watch the full National Defence Video: “No China-Pak Collusion? Gen Anil Chauhan Reveals BIG Operation Sindoor Truth | Indian Casualties.”
About the author: Shailesh Kumar is an independent investigative freelance journalist and founder Editor of “National Defence. He has been reporting for India’s top and leading news television, newspapers and digital / web media for about 25 years.
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