A former Chinese defence attache on Sunday dismissed India’s delayed claim that it had shot down six Pakistani aircraft during their May conflict as “self-amusement,” saying the assertion lacked evidence and was widely questioned by the international community.
Three months after the clashes, Indian Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh claimed on Saturday that his country had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one other military aircraft.
Cheng Xizhong, a former Chinese defence attache in South Asia, called Singh’s remarks “comical, implausible and unconvincing.”
“We may call it self-amusement,” he said in a statement reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan. “The Indian side has not presented any evidence, such as photos of the wreckage of the fighter jets, radar monitoring data, etc, while the Pakistani side had previously presented a large amount of relevant evidence of shooting down the Indian fighter jets.”
Pakistan has consistently denied that India downed any of its aircraft and says it shot down six Indian planes. Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday swiftly rubbished Singh’s “belated assertions,” stating that “not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed.”
The Chinese expert noted that India had never produced any evidence to prove its claims, while Pakistan had “immediately provided a detailed technical report to international media after the clash ended.”
Cheng, who is currently a senior research fellow at the Charhar Institute think tank, also cited “confirmations from world leaders, senior Indian politicians, and foreign intelligence assessments that India suffered heavy losses of multiple aircraft.”
“It is thus evident that no Pakistani fighter jet was hit or destroyed by the Indian side. On the contrary, the Pakistani side shot down six Indian fighter jets and destroyed S-400 air defence positions, among other achievements, which is an indisputable fact,” he added.
Following the air combat in May, reports from international media and officials from various countries affirmed some of India’s losses. The Washington Post, citing visual evidence, reported that at least two French-made Indian fighter jets were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). France’s air chief, General Jerome Bellanger, has previously said that he has seen evidence of the loss of three Indian fighters, including a Rafale.
A Reuters report cited India’s intelligence failure as central to the air battle, which led to the downing of Rafale aircraft by the PAF’s J-10 fighters using PL-15 missiles.
Two days after the May 7 air combat, a PAF deputy chief of operations, Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed, shared the locations where five Indian jets were downed — four along the Line of Control and one near Bathinda. A Dawn report, citing PAF officials, said that three Rafales, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29 were downed within a 40-minute spanwithout any Pakistani jet crossing the border.
Singh’s claim also drew criticism within India, with Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera questioning the timing and circumstances of the alleged operation.
