PAKISTAN launched multiple attacks on early May 10 aiming to bring India to its knees in 48 hours but it had to fold up the offensives in eight hours and reach outto New Delhi fortalks seekinganendtothehostilities, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday. In the first detailed account ofIndia’s clashes with Pakistan, General Chauhan said India’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack was to draw“limits of tolerance” to cross border terrorism and not tolerating Islamabad’s nuclear blackmail.

 

Inanaddress atthe Savitribai Phule Pune University, the top military commander appeared to reject criticism against him for acknowledging three days ago that India lost an unspecifiednumberofcombatjetsduringtheinitialphaseofOperation Sindoor. Professionalmilitariesarenot affected by temporary losses as overalloutcomesaremuchmore important than such setbacks, he said and used cricketing metaphor to draw a clear distinctionbetweeninitialsetbacks and the overall outcome. Suppose you go into a crickettest match and you win by an innings, then there is no question of wickets and balls etc, he said. GeneralChauhan,whoplayed a key role in planning India’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack aswell as subsequent Pakistanioffensives,threwlight on various aspects of the conflict.“OnMay 10, at about 1 am, their (Pakistan) aim was to get India to its knees in 48 hours. Multipleattackswerelaunched andinsomemanner,theyhave escalated this conflict.

 

We had actually hit only terrorist targets,” he said. “It was also rational on their part as the operation which they thought would continue for 48hours foldedupinabout eight hours. And then they picked up the telephone and saidtheywantedtotalk(tous),” he said. The Chief of Defence Staff said the rationale behind Pakistan’s decision could be based on two aspects. “One -- they must have assumed that if they continue, they are likely to lose much more.Andsecond-- sincethey hadstuckusatmultiplefronts, they still did not have the benefitofunderstandingwhatthey had struck,” he said. When the request for talks and de-escalation came from Pakistan, we did accept it, he said.IndialaunchedOperation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan inresponsetothePahalgamterror attack.

 

The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding onstoppingthemilitaryactions onMay10.NewDelhihasbeen maintaining that India’s fierce counter-attack that day forced Pakistan to plead for ending the hostilities. General Chauhan said Pakistanhasbeenfollowingan approach of bleeding India by thousand cuts. “Operation Sindoor, as per the Governmentis concerned, isnotaboutretribution.Ithink itwasaboutdrawingtheselimits of tolerance. Thus, and not far,” he said