Washington/New Delhi (National Times): US President Donald Trump has stirred fresh controversy with a dramatic claim that “five jets were shot down” during the recent India-Pakistan military standoff that followed the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The comment, made during a private dinner with Republican lawmakers at the White House on Friday, lacked clarity on which country’s aircraft were allegedly downed.
“In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five — five, four or five — but I think five jets were shot down actually,” Trump said, while referencing the escalation between the two nuclear-armed nations. His remarks quickly revived public attention on Operation Sindoor — India’s retaliatory military campaign launched in early May.
The Pahalgam attack, which claimed 26 lives including tourists, triggered four days of intense cross-border strikes. India launched coordinated air, missile and naval operations targeting what it described as terrorist bases and military assets deep within Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Pakistan, in the aftermath, claimed it had downed multiple Indian aircraft — including three Rafale fighter jets — and captured Indian pilots. However, Islamabad has offered no verifiable proof to support these assertions.
India has consistently denied any Rafale losses or the capture of its personnel. In an interview following the ceasefire, Indian Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan acknowledged that the Indian Air Force had lost aircraft during the skirmish, but dismissed the Pakistani narrative of six Indian jets being downed as exaggerated.
“What’s important is not how many jets went down, but why they were hit,” Gen. Chauhan told Bloomberg TV during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He emphasized India’s ability to adapt its tactics quickly and launch successful precision strikes, including on heavily defended Pakistani airfields up to 300 km inside its territory.
Reinforcing India’s position, Eric Trappier — Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, the maker of the Rafale — categorically rejected Pakistan’s claim of downing Rafales. “What Pakistan is claiming about destroying three Rafale planes is inaccurate,” Trappier said in a June 15 interview with French magazine Challenges. “The truth may surprise many when the full details are made public.”
Meanwhile, President Trump also reiterated that it was US diplomatic pressure that led to the May 10 ceasefire. He credited the US with halting a potentially dangerous escalation between two “very powerful nuclear states.”
“We got it solved through trade,” Trump said. “We told them — if you want to do a trade deal, you can’t be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons.”
However, New Delhi has firmly rejected this version. Indian officials maintain that the ceasefire was achieved bilaterally, without the involvement of any third party. The Ministry of External Affairs has also denied any US ultimatum regarding trade negotiations.
Operation Sindoor, which began late on May 7, saw the coordinated use of India’s air, ground, and naval forces to strike at Pakistan-based terror infrastructure. Air Marshal A.K. Bharti stated on May 11 that all Indian pilots involved in the operation had returned safely.
As both countries gradually de-escalate, conflicting narratives continue to dominate the diplomatic and media space — reflecting the broader complexity of India-Pakistan ties and the high stakes involved when conflict breaks out between two nuclear-armed neighbours.
