‘Incorrect’ that India lost Rafale ‘jets’ during Operation Sindoor, says defence secretary

It is incorrect to say that multiple Rafale jets of the Indian Air Force were shot down by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, Defence Secretary RK Singh told CNBC-TV18 on Monday.

Singh refused to answer a question regarding the losses the Air Force suffered during the initial phase of the four-day conflict, the news channel reported.

“You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct,” Singh told CNBC-TV18. “Pakistan suffered losses many times over India in both human and material terms and more than 100 terrorists.”

The defence secretary also reiterated that the government had given the Indian military operational freedom during the conflict. “No political constraints on our armed forces and they have full operational freedom in conflict,” he said.

This came following a remark by Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s defence attaché to Indonesia, on June 10 that the Indian Air Force had lost fighter jets to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor on May 7 because of the “constraint given by the political leadership”.

“Suppression of enemy air defences and destruction of enemy air defences is very very important…” Kumar said. “I may not agree…that India lost so many aircraft, but I do agree we did lose some aircraft.”

He added: “And that happened only because of the constraint given by...

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