'No question of wickets and players, India inflicted innings defeat on Pakistan': CDS Anil Chauhan

In response to a question about the damage suffered by Pakistan during 'Operation Sindoor', Gen Chauhan made it clear that the operation has not ended as of now and there is a 'temporary cessation of hostilities'.

Mumbai: Asserting that India has inflicted an "innings defeat" on Pakistan during Operation Sindoor undertaken after the Pahalgam terrorist strike, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that professional armed forces are not affected by losses during wars but the way it responds to attacks. He said the outcome actually carries more importance.

Besides, the CDS also slammed Pakistani establishment for abetting terrorism. He however, made it clear that the neighbour would not succeed in its designs as a new redline has been drawn by the government against cross-border terrorism.

"When I was asked about losses on our side…I said these are not important. The results and how you act are important,” Gen Chauhan said addressing ‘Future Wars and Warfare’ at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Savitribai Phule Pune University in the education capital of Pune.

Last week, speaking to Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Gen Chauhan, to a question on Pakistani claims of downing of six Indian fighter jets during Operation Sindoor had said - “…absolutely incorrect…what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down…why they were down, what mistakes were made, that are important…numbers are not important…”.

The statement of Gen Chauhan - away from Indian soil - had sparked off a political issue with opposition hurling a barrage of questions on the Narendra Modi-led Centre.

During the Pune interaction, when a question was asked on the losses inflicted to the Pakistani side and what potential strategy insight that can be drawn for future conflict and evolution of warfare, Gen Chauhan, in lighter vein, chose to elaborate and drew an analogy from football and cricket.

“Very nice question…when I was asked about losses on our side, I said these are not important. The results and how you act are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses,” Gen Chauhan said.

“I will give you a detailed answer…suppose you go into a football match and you win 4-2; one side scored two goals and the other side scored four goals, so that’s an even-sided match...(now) suppose you go in for a cricket test match... and you win by an innings defeat, then there's no question of how many wickets... how many balls...how many players,” the top military commander said amid thunderous applause and laughter.

However, he went on to add that based on technical parameters, the armed forces will take out this particular data and share it with you. “We will tell you how many aircraft we destroyed and how many radars we destroyed. We'll make a rough assessment of that and come out with that shortly,” he said.