The Aryavarth Express

PUNE: Professional militaries are not affected by temporary losses, as the overall outcomes are much more important than such setbacks, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.

The top military commander said that Pakistan has been following an approach of bleeding India by a thousand cuts, but New Delhi drew a completely new red line against cross-border terrorism by conducting Operation Sindoor.

In an address at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Gen Chauhan appeared to reject criticism against him for acknowledging that India lost an unspecified number of combat jets during the initial phase of the operation.

“When I was asked about losses on our side, I said these are not important, as results and how you act are important,” he said.

It would not be very correct to talk about losses and numbers, he said, responding to a question.

In war, even if there are setbacks, you need to maintain your morale, he said, adding losses are not important but outcomes are.

The Chief of Defence Staff highlighted various elements of war, including politics and violence, and noted, In Operation Sindoor too, war and politics were happening as a parallel kind of phenomenon.

Gen Chauhan also made a mention about Pakistan Army chief Gen Asim Munir “spewing venom” against India and Hindus just weeks before the Pahalgam attack to emphasise that Islamabad’s approach has been to “bleed India by thousand cuts”.

What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards victims, he said.

The thinking behind Operation Sindoor was that state-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan has to stop and that country should not be able to hold India hostage to terrorism.

India is not going to live under the shadow of terror and nuclear blackmail, Gen Chauhan said.

On India’s military offensives, he said Indian armed forces carried out very deliberate precision strikes on Pakistani targets, and some of them were as narrow as two metres.

Explaining the process of the understanding on cessation of hostilities, he said Pakistan planned to carry out its counter operations against India for 48 hours, but it folded up in about eight hours.

And they wanted to talk, he said, highlighting the impact of Indian strikes.

Pakistan’s decision to talk to India on May 10 stemmed from the realisation that it will suffer more if its operation continues, Gen Chauhan said.

Around 1 am on May 10, Pakistan aimed to get India to its knees in 48 hours as multiple attacks were launched, he said.

Pakistan’s operation that they thought would continue for 48 hours folded up in about eight hours, and they wanted to talk, he added.

When the request for talks and de-escalation came from Pakistan, we did accept it, Gen Chauhan said.

On India’s overall approach, he said, “We have raised the bar; we have connected terror to water; we have drawn a new line of military operation against terror.”

Pakistan wants to bleed India by a thousand cuts; we drew new red lines to combat terror: Gen Chauhan