Chief Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Sunday recalled the 2019 Balakot strikes to while speaking about Operation Sindoor. He expressed disappointment over the fact that despite giving a major blow to Pakistan, the force was unable to convince ‘own’ people due to lack of information from within, which was overcome this time.
He said that the ghost of Balakot, where the force couldn’t get anything from inside, thereby finding it hard to convince people about the operational success, was laid to rest this time.
Addressing the 16th edition of the Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture at the HAL Management Academy Auditorium in Bengaluru, he said, “In Balakot, we could not get anything from inside, and it became a big issue trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, as to what we have been able to achieve. We had intelligence of what had gone on inside, had a human kind of intelligence where we had a very clear picture of the inside in terms of there had been huge damage. There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that”.
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The Chief of Air Staff also confirmed that the Indian forces shot down at least five Pakistani fighter jets and one large aircraft during Operation Sindoor.
“We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT aircraft or an AEW &C aircraft, which was taken on at a distance of about 300 kilometres. This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about,” AP Singh added.