By Sanat Kaul
Operation Sindoor brought with it certain new and special features in the Indo-Pak conflicts, which started 77 years back. Firstly, there were no boots on the ground. Unlike in our earlier wars with Pakistan no soldier was sent across. It was largely a show of Air and Space Power with the Army playing a minor role.
Second, this was a demonstration of outstanding and brilliant coordination by our software engineer in making the attack on nine terrorist sites on 7th May well inside Pakistan and again on 9th May on Pakistani military targets in response to their targeting Indian military targets on 8th May. While India’s robust Integrated Counter-Drone Grid and layered Air Defence systems intercepted Pakistani attacks, we were also able to break into their Air Defence System and successfully target Pakistani military bases using different types of weapon systems both indigenous and foreign and integrating them with our space assets.
Third that stands out is that there was no dependence on any foreign country for any support while Pakistan was heavily dependent on China (and a little on Turkey). In this context it could be said that modern warfare has become dependent on Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) with US owned and operated GPS system being most popular. Other systems are Glonass of Russian, Beidou of Chinese and Galileo of EuropeanUnion. India, for the first time, used its own NAVIC(the Indian Regional Navigation system). Unlike in Kargil conflict when the US turned off GPS over the region, this time we were free of such dependence. With this India was able to go for precision strikes, the start of Operation Sindoor and thwart all Pakistani and Chinese weapons from UAVs to missiles, and also attached the Pakistani Headquarters at Rawalpindi and other bases. As a result it is reported that Pakistani military is considering to shift its Headquarters from Rawalpindi to Islamabad.
Fourth thing is that while this fight was between India and Pakistan, there was a third party activity involved: China. China was not only actively involved in supply of weapons including missiles and aircrafts, but also providing navigational support through Bediou, their navigation system.
The fifth is that China was using this occasion for a technology testing and demonstration(without Chinese soldiers) in real war for their proposed battle in 2027 in takeover of Taiwan by force.
The successful and flawless development of ‘Akashteer’ an advanced, indigenous and automated air defence system developed by BEL and DRDO has once again shown the brilliance of Indian software engineers. It fuses data from radars, AWACS, airborne systems etc and uses artificial intelligence to integrate multirange inception autonomously and is also mobile. It is also integrated with very recently inducted S-400 Russian air defence system and coordinated seamlessly with ISRO’s satellites like Cartosat and Gsat. Further, it also took real time feedback from Navic, and then assigned the required unit to respond within seconds. It is, therefore, the Indian ‘Iron Dome’ developed without any assistance from abroad.
On Chinese involvement, it’s a fact that approximately 80% of Pakistani equipment is of Chinese original. As Pakistan is broke and has just managed another IMF bailout with the active help of US, China is probably supplying weapons and ammunition free or on soft loan as this is serving their purpose also as a proxy war on India. Operation Sindoor is, therefore, a testing ground of Chinese weapons without their soldiers. However, use of Chinese weapons in this operation has not brought good results for them as India was able to penetrate their air defence system and also stop all their UAVs and missiles. Therefore, for the Chinese it became a test case and now they will need to plug the gaps.
As regards international response it can be best described as lukewarm for India. US under President Trump has not been favourable towards India and has taken credit for stopping the war which has been denied by India.His family has entered into a business relation with Pakistan on digital currency issue. European countries have been indifferent. Russia has also been lukewarm. Only Taiwan and Israel spoke up for India. For Pakistan it was China, Turkey and Azerbaijan which spoke up for them and China and Turkey provided military support. US helped them to get a loan from IMF. So, for future India should be prepared to act on its own.
In the above scenario, as a strategic move, besides having declared that the Indus Water Treaty is now kept in abeyance, we need to relook at Gilgit- Baltistan issue. Gilgit Baltistan do not form a part of Jammu and Kashmir dispute, though they have got intermixed. It got ceded to Pakistan in 1947 by default as a unilateral decision by a Col Brown, then Commander Gilgit Scouts, declaring it a part of Pakistan. No assent of Maharaja of J&K was taken. India also never cared too much for it. However, the 1963 Border Agreement between China and Pakistan considers this region a disputed territory to be settled after India and Pakistan settle its Border. The local population, majority Shia, wants to join the India Union and are agitating for it for sometime.
This is reinforced in the 1963 Pakistan- China border agreement where it is clearly stated in Article 6: “The Parties have agreed that after the settlement of Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, the sovereign authority concerned will reopen negotiations with the Government of the China, on the boundary as described in Article 2 of the present agreement, so as to sign a formal Boundary Treaty to replace the present agreement:” Since the agitation against the Pakistani Government is still active, a little encouragement from India is needed. If Gilgit-Baltistan joins India, which is India’s rightful territory as it formed a part of Maharaja’s empire in 1947, it would bring a break into CPEC, which will be a great setback for China.
India would be in a better negotiating position to strike a deal with China to allow its road and pipeline to go through Indian territory with negotiation/compensation and put to an end to free Chinese military movement into Pakistan by land route. Ironically, this would break the continuity between China and Pakistan, as exactly opposite was done to India in 1959 by removing Tibet as a sovereign country and buffer between India and China by it’s military takeover.
India’s two front war: While defence strategists talk of a possibility of a two front war, Operation Sindoor has shown that its no longer a possibility but a reality as in earlier fights between Pakistan and India, China was not an active participant. For China, Pakistan, in spite of its problems, is a strategic asset. Besides containing India by encouraging and supporting the Pakistan Army to send terrorists into India, and is a cheap source of keeping India in check, it has invested heavily in CPEC which gives them a direct road and oil pipe connectivity from Khasgar to Gwadar port in Pakistan which they have built and gives them a direct outlet to the Arabian Sea. With this they can reduce their ‘Malacca Dilemma’ especially for oil imports from the Gulf region. Gwadar port is now fully under their control for both civil and military purposes in spite of the Baluch opposition notwithstanding.
For Pakistan military Operation Sindoor is a godsend. With Imran Khan’s arrest leading to a general unrest in Pakistan and the military becoming unpopular with the public, this war with India has made the Army popular once again. General Munir has been promoted to Field Marshall, US has got them yet another bailout from IMF and China remains their all-weather friend and Imran Khan is down, if not out.
For India, while it has been a military success, India has lost the narrative. It is also now confirmed from military sources that we have lost aircraft/s. Which ones and how many is not known.To correct the narrative India has sent bipartisan teams of Members of Parliament to many counties to bring back the narrative. But it has also raised the stake for itself by declaring that any future terrorist attack from Pakistan side would be an act of War against India.—INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
New Delhi
5 June 2025
(Sanat Kaul is Chairman, International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones & formerly with Ministry of Civil Aviation)
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