India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan confirmed on Saturday that Pakistan shot down his country’s fighter jets during the four-day conflict earlier in the month.
The Pakistan Air Force shot down Indian fighter jets on the night of May 6-7 in response to the Indian Air Force’s late-night missile strikes at six Pakistani sites, including Subhan Mosque in Bahawalpur’s Ahmedpur East, Bilal Mosque in Muzaffarabad, Abbas Mosque in Kotli, Umalkura Mosque in Muridke, the village of Kotki Lohara in Sialkot district, and Shakargarh.
Pakistan took down seven Indian jets, including three advanced French Rafale planes. According to a Dawn report, the recent clash between India and Pakistan marks a significant development in the regional air power constellation. Three Rafales, one Su-30MKI, one Mirage 2000, one Jaguar and one MiG-29 were downed within a 40-minute span. Not one Pakistani jet crossed the border or engaged in close combat. India also crashed two Rafale fighter jets after returning from a night raid.
While speaking to Bloomberg at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, General Chauhan said, “I think what is important is not the jets being downed but why the jets were shot down.”
In response to a query by the show’s host, he confirmed that Indian fighter jets were shot down during the recent escalation between the two countries.
He emphasised that the reasons why the Indian jets were shot down and what the Indian forces did after that were more important.
General Chauhan also claimed that the four-day conflict never came close to the point of nuclear war.
American and French officials also confirmed that Pakistan shot down an Indian jet using fighter aircraft it acquired from China, CNN and Reuters reported earlier in the month.
CNN cited a senior US official saying, as per their assessment, Pakistani forces shot down the jet during India’s air strikes inside Pakistan.
A high-ranking French intelligence official also told CNN that Pakistan downed one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force.
Earlier in the month, American newspaper The Washington Post also verified visual evidence that the Pakistan Air Force shot down at least two French-made Indian fighter aircraft.
The paper based its findings on analyses by former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician Trevor Ball, Etienne Marcuz, an associate fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research and an anonymous French air power expert.
“In a review of more than a dozen images and videos posted online in the aftermath of the strikes, The Post verified debris consistent with at least two French-made fighter jets flown by the Indian Air Force — a Rafale and a Mirage 2000,” The Post reported.
After intercepting drones sent by India on May 8 and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases on the night of May 9-10, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.
The US-brokered ceasefire had brought a halt to a week of record escalation between Pakistan and India as the latter took a series of unprovoked military actions despite Islamabad’s call for a neutral probe into India’s allegations over the Pahalgam attack.
© 2025, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
