NEW DELHI: Did India plan to strike Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Skardu airbase after targeting Sargodha? Former chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan has revealed that Indian forces had cleared Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan as a possible target during Operation Sindoor but had to change plans because of “bad weather”.Chauhan, who was heading the military when Operation Sindoor was carried out, made the remarks while speaking at the Vivekananda International Foundation on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath.Recalling the counterterror operation, former CDS Chauhan said, “Once the Pakistanis had picked up the phone and said they wanted to talk at about 10 AM. The Air Chief asked me whether he should strike Sargodha, I said, Go ahead… I said, could you please identify two more targets, so one of the targets he identified was Skardu.”“We gave a yes, but after some time, the weather was bad over it and they had to change over to Bholari,” he added.
What Ex-CDS Chauhan said about Kirana Hills
Chauhan also clarified that Indian forces “did not target” Pakistan’s Kirana Hills, an area reportedly linked to a nuclear facility.He backed Air Marshal AK Bharti, who was the then Director General of Air Operations (DGAO) of the Air Force. Bharti had said on May 12 last year, “We have not hit Kirana hills, whatever is there.”Bharti was responding to questions about reports and social media claims that Indian forces had targeted Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor.Chauhan said, “There was a small episode about what Air Marshal Bharti was asked, the Kirana Hills episode. I think I’ll clarify this. On occasions, it’s been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit; that is where their (Pakistan’s) nuclear facilities are.”He said Bharti had “rightly clarified that we did not target Kirana Hills”.Chauhan explained that Indian forces had sent several loitering munitions towards Sargodha before the strikes. Kirana Hills is around 10 km north of Sargodha.“I can, maybe give a kind of an explanation… Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering munitions to Sargodha, and Kirana Hills is about 10 km north of Sargodha. So the loitering munition is looking for radars which are in and around Sargodha, and it has a time span, which means it will loiter for about two hours, and once it does not find a target, it comes down and hits somewhere,” the former CDS said.
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He added, “It must have come and hit one of those hills. So that could be one of the reasons as to what people asked… Because Pakistani media also showed some images in which there was smoke coming out from Kirana Hills.”India launched Operation Sindoor in May 2025, targeting nine major terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following Pakistan-sponsored Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.The counterterror strikes killed more than 100 terrorists. During the military confrontation, Indian forces also struck Pakistan’s Sargodha airbase.Chauhan said Operation Sindoor is “still ongoing”, although major parts of the military operation have already concluded.
