Army deputy chief calls Operation Sindoor ‘a masterly stroke’, reveals China fed Pakistan ‘live’ intel: 5 points

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul Singh on Friday said that China had helped Pakistan with ‘live inputs’ in conflict with India, calling for urgent upgrades to the country’s air defence systems. 

India fought two adversaries during the conflict, with Pakistan being the “front face” while China provided “all possible support”, Lieutenant General Rahul Singh said at a defence industry event in New Delhi, as reported by Reuters.

“When the DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) level talks were going on, Pakistan said that we know that your such and such important vector is primed and it is ready for action … it was getting live inputs from China,” Lt Gen Singh said.

The nuclear-armed rivals used missiles, drones and artillery fire during the four-day fighting – their worst in decades – triggered by an attack on tourists in the Pahalgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, which India said Pakistan had orchestrated. 

India had responded by carrying out precision strikes on May 7, under the name ‘Operation Sindoor’, at nine terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). 

Deputy Army Chief’s top 5 statements

1. Describing Operation Sindoor as a carefully orchestrated military action, Singh said that the operation showed India’s resolve to stay ahead on the escalation ladder, while preventing a full-scale war with Pakistan, as reported by ANI.

   “An important consideration was that we should always be on the top of the escalation ladder. When we reach a military objective, we should try and put a stop to it,” he said.

2. He termed Operation Sindoor a “masterly stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time”. “War is easy to initiate, but it’s very difficult to control. So I would say that was a very masterly stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time,” Lt Gen Singh said. 
3. While laying out the strategic thinking behind Operation Sindoor’s execution and conclusion, Singh said that a total of 21 targets were identified, out of which nine were thought would be prudent to engage. 

   “It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged,” he said in New Delhi. Both technological and human intelligence were used to decide on the targets, he added.

4. The operation, according to him, was deliberately designed to be a tri-services approach involving the Army, Air Force, and the Navy to “send the right message that we indeed are an integrated force”.
5. The Deputy Chief also flagged a few takeaways from Operation Sindoor. “Few lessons that I thought I must flag as far as Operation Sindoor is concerned. Firstly, one border, two adversaries. Pakistan was a front face. We had China providing all possible support, and it’s no surprise because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese. So, it’s no surprise,” PTI quoted him as saying. 

   “China perhaps has seen that it’s able to test its weapons against various other weapon systems that are there. It’s like a live lab which is available to it,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)