Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has categorically rejected recent remarks by the Indian air chief alleging that Pakistani aircraft were destroyed during Operation Sindoor, calling the claims “as implausible as they are ill-timed” and a fabrication aimed at serving India’s domestic political agenda.

“It is also ironic how senior Indian military officers are being used as the faces of monumental failure caused by strategic shortsightedness of Indian politicians,” he added.

In a statement on social media platform X, Asif noted that India had not made any such allegation in the three months following the operation, while Pakistan had promptly given detailed technical briefings to the international media.

He said independent observers, world leaders, foreign intelligence reports, and even some Indian political figures acknowledged India’s losses during the May conflict.

Asif stressed that no Pakistani combat aircraft were lost in the engagement, while Pakistan shot down six Indian aircraft and inflicted heavy damage on Indian forces along the Line of Control.

“Not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed by Indian. Pakistan destroyed 6 Indian jets, S400 air defence batteries and unmanned aircraft of India while swiftly putting several Indian airbases out of action,” he said.

He challenged both countries to present their aircraft inventory records to an independent body, saying, “If the truth is in question, let both sides open their aircraft inventories to independent verification — though we suspect this would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure.”

“Wars are not won by falsehoods but by moral authority, national resolve and professional competence. Such comical narratives, crafted for domestic political expediency, increase the grave risks of strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment,” he remarked.

The minister said India’s “comical narratives” increase the grave risk of strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment.

He warned that Pakistan had made it clear during Operation Bunyanum Marsoos that every violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “will invite swift, surefire and proportionate response, and responsibility for any ensuing escalation will rest entirely with strategically blind leaders who gamble with South Asia’s peace for fleeting political gains.”

Earlier, Indian Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh said at an event in the southern city of Bengaluru that India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one other military aircraft during clashes in May.

It was first such statement by India months after its worst military conflict in decades with Pakistan.