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‘In Operation Sindoor, we played chess’: Army chief on military operation against Pakistan
The Army chief took the example of chess to detail the military operations against Pakistan, saying the warfare was not anything like the conventional ones.
Army chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi opened up on details of Operation Sindoor against Pakistan and said the first meeting regarding the anti-terror operation was held a day after the Pahalgam terror attack.
Dwivedi said that a meeting of three chiefs of armed forces was held with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on April 23, when a free hand was given to the military to decide the operation.
The Army chief took the example of chess to detail the operations conducted against Pakistan from 7 May, saying that the warfare was not anything like the conventional ones.
"In Operation Sindoor, we played chess. It means that we did not know the next move the enemy is going to take and what we were going to do. This is what we call a grey zone," Upendra Dwivedi said at an event in IIT Madras in Chennai on August 4.
"Grey zone means that we are not going for the conventional operations. But we are doing something just short of a conventional operation," he added.
Army chief Dwivedi said Operation Sindoor taught the armed forces to operate in a grey zone, adding that the military was making chess moves during the operation.
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"Somewhere we were giving them the checkmate and somewhere we were going in for the kill at the risk of losing our own, but that's life is all about," he added.
He said that after the Pahalgam terror attack, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the three service chiefs during a meeting, “Enough is enough,” and they were clearly told that something had to be done.
"That is the kind of confidence, political direction and political clarity we saw for the first time... That is what raises your morale. That is how it helped our army commander-in-chiefs to be on the ground and act as per their wisdom," he added.
On Saturday, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, during an address in Bengaluru, said that India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets using S-400 air defence systems. Apart from the five jets, a large Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft was also destroyed, Singh said.
The Air Chief Marshal also said that the air force faced no restrictions during Operation Sindoor, adding that it had complete freedom to plan and execute the mission.
Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, where India targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), days after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which claimed the lives of 26 people.
