Former CDS General Anil Chauhan highlights Pakistan’s intelligence gaps during Op Sindoor

NEW DELHI: Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Anil Chauhan (retd) on Tuesday revealed significant intelligence and operational gaps within the Pakistan Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor, highlighting their heavy reliance on flawed external inputs, particularly within the maritime domain.

Addressing the ‘VIMARSH’ event on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath at the Vivekananda International Foundation on Tuesday, General Chauhan pointed out stark inaccuracies in Islamabad’s military assessments. He noted that Pakistani daily briefings frequently detailed the supposed movements of an Indian carrier battle group in the Arabian Sea.

However, cross-verifying these reports with the Western Naval Command revealed that the carrier battle group was actually positioned 100 to 300 nautical miles away from the locations cited by Islamabad.

#WATCH | Delhi | On Operation Sindoor, Former CDS Anil Chauhan says, “Pakistan’s understanding of the situation was quite poor, even in the maritime domain… Their daily briefings would tell where a carrier battle group was moving in the Arabian Sea, and when I checked back from… https://t.co/xIxtdPOraJ pic.twitter.com/DTlXikphLm

— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2026

“Pakistan’s understanding of the situation was quite poor, even in the maritime domain. Their daily briefings would tell where a carrier battle group was moving in the Arabian Sea, and when I checked back from the Western Naval Command as to where the carrier battle group was on those days, it was almost about 100 to 200 to 300 nautical miles off from that place,” he said.

#WATCH | Delhi | Former CDS Anil Chauhan says, “At occasions, it’s been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit or not, which is where their (Pakistan’s) nuclear facilities are… Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering missions at Sargodha and Kirana Hills is about… https://t.co/vHScZAapJS pic.twitter.com/M6rqsSkW7U

— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2026

He further emphasised that either Pakistan was getting incorrect information of India’s carrier battle group or they were largely dependent on foreign sources. “Either they were getting wrong inputs of our carrier battle group, or it means they were just not accurate because they were dependent only on foreign sources for this, because their long-range maritime aircraft did not fly at all,” he added.

The remarks come in the context of Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7, 2025, following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). (ANI)