'India was battling not one but 3 adversaries, China used Pakistan conflict as live lab'

Even during the talks between the two Director General of Military Operations, the Pakistani side gave clear indications of how Indian assets are under constant Chinese satellite surveillance, General Rahul R Singh said.

New Delhi: India fought not one, but three enemies on the western front during Operation Sindoor as Pakistan was getting all possible support from its all weather ally China while Turkieye was providing key military hardware, a top Indian Army officer said here on Friday.

"Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support. And there was no surprise because, if you look at the statistics in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese," Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh said.

Addressing a conference organised by FICCI, he said China was not only following the ancient military strategy of "36 stratagems" and “killing the adversary with a borrowed knife, but also used the India-Pakistan conflict as a “live lab” to test its weapons.

Even during the talks between the two Director General of Military Operations, the Pakistani side gave clear indications of how Indian assets are under constant Chinese satellite surveillance.

“When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan actually was mentioning that we know that your such and such vector was primed and ready for action, and we would request you to perhaps pull it back. So he was getting live inputs from China. That is one place we really need to move fast and take appropriate action,” the Deputy Chief said.

This is for the first time a senior official has spoken in public on the communist country’s role in the 87 hours of India-Pakistan conflict that escalated sharply. Earlier Indian leaders including Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan downplayed China’s involvement in the episode.

Lt Gen Singh referred to 36 stratagems, which in the Chinese military parlance are a collection of tactics that can be applied to different situations.

“China (follows) the good old dictum of killing with a borrowed knife, (one of the) 36 stratagems. He would rather use the neighbour to cause pain rather than getting into the mud-slinging match on the northern borders,” he said.

“Another thing that China has seen is that it could test its own weapons against various other weapon systems. It's like a live lab. That is something we have to be very very cognisant about,” he noted.

Lt Gen Singh, who looks after the Indian Army's capability development and sustenance vertical, said Turkiye also played an important role in providing support to Pakistan.

"We saw numerous drones coming and landing in the face of war, during the war, along with the individuals who were there," he said, underlining the need for India to learn its lessons from the conflict.

"The next important lesson is the importance of C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) and civil-military fusion. There is a lot to be done as far as this domain is concerned," he said.

The senior officer pointed out that India’s “population centres were not quite at risk” during Operation Sindoor, but that may not be the case next time.

“In the next round, we will have to be prepared for that. For that more and more air defence, more and more counter rockets, artillery, and drone systems have to be prepared for which we have to move very very fast,” he noted.

India and Pakistan had a short but intense battle in May after Islamabad attacked India with drones and missiles as a response to India’s retaliatory strike on terror infrastructure inside Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The retaliation came two weeks after the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent civilians were killed by terrorists.