• Source:JND
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Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi has spoken about the execution of Operation Sindoor for the first time in public. He also mocked Pakistan's claim of victory. Talking about the preparation and execution of the operation, General described the operation’s strategy as similar to playing chess. 

General Dwivedi made these remarks during the inauguration of ‘Agnishodh,’ the Indian Army Research Cell at IIT Madras, earlier this week. He described the Operation Sindooor as a full conventional military engagement. He said it was operated in a ‘grey zone’ and with unpredictability. 

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The preparation of Operation Sindoor began on April 23 after the Chief of all three armed forces and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh decided to take decisive action against Pakistan. 

“In Op Sindoor, what we did, we played chess… What does it mean! It means that we did not know what step the enemy was going to take and what we were going to do. It was a grey zone. The grey zone is that we are not going for the conventional operations, but we are doing something which is just short of the conventional operations," he said.

General Dwivedi also mocked Islamabad's victory claim during Operation Sindoor as he highlighted the importance of shaping the narrative in conflicts. He said that a Pakistani would think that his country has won if a Pakistani general has been promoted to Field Marshal. 

"If you ask a Pakistani whether you lost or won, he'd say, 'My chief has become a field marshal. We must have won, that's why he's become a field marshal,'" he said, referring to Pakistan’s promotion of its army chief, Asim Munir, to a five-star general and field marshal

Army Chief highlighted that Operation Sindoor was different from other missions the Indian armed forces carried out, like Uri and Balakot. 

“This is the time when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had also said, I think enough is enough. And all the three chiefs were very clear, something had to be done. And the free hand was given, of course, that you decide what is to be done," he added.

According to further information provided by the Army Chief, the operation went deep, targeting the enemy’s heartland territory. Critical assets were also targeted by codenaming them as ‘Nursery’ and ‘Masters’. 

Out of the total 9 locations, India targeted, five were located in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and four in Punjab. “This test match stopped on the fourth day and it could have continued for fourteen days also, one forty days also, fourteen hundred days also, we don’t know. So we have to be prepared for those kinds of things," he said.  

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On the other hand, in a major revelation, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh said on Saturday that India’s air defence systems shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one AEW&C/ELINT surveillance aircraft during the operation.