India again admits jet losses in Pakistan clash, political leadership blamed
India plane crash probe looking at all angles: minister
Monitoring Desk
NEW DELHI: An Indian defence official has admitted that the country’s air force did “lose some aircraft” on the night of May 7 when they launched an unprovoked attack on civilian sites in Pakistan during the recent 86-hour war between the two nuclear powers.
Captain Shiv Kumar, an Indian defence attache, made the statement while speaking at a seminar, ‘Analysis of the Pakistan–India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies from the Perspective of Air Power’ organised by Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma in Indonesia, reported Indian media.
Kumar blamed the losses suffered by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on the constraints imposed by the political leadership in New Delhi. He claimed that the Indian aircraft were under orders not to attack Pakistan military assets, to avoid an escalation.
Earlier, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan confirmed the loss fighter jets during the May clashes with Pakistan, marking the first official acknowledgment of air losses in the ongoing conflict. He disclosed the information in an interview with Bloomberg Television, during the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
However, he denied Pakistan’s tally of six Indian jets being shot down, choosing not to specify the exact number of aircraft lost. “What is important is not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Chauhan said. “Numbers are not important.”
On May 30, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy admitted that Pakistan downed five Indian fighter jets, including Rafale aircraft. However, the military circles of India are always tight-lipped about the numbers of fighter jets loss by PAF.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down at least six Indian fighter jets, including three French-built Rafales, which the Narendra Modi-led government bought to give the IAF a perceived qualitative edge over the PAF.
Meanwhile, an Indian aviation minister on Sunday said investigators were probing “all angles” behind the Air India crash earlier this month when asked by the media about possible sabotage.
All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were killed when it crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad on June 12. Authorities have identified 19 others who died on the ground.
India’s minister of state for civil aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said the investigation was looking at “all angles” when asked specifically about possible “sabotage”, in an interview with a TV channel.
“It has never happened before that both engines have shut off together,” Mohol said earlier in the interview, in reference to theories by some experts of possible dual-engine failure.
