Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has dismissed as “implausible” and “comical” recent claims by Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh that India had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and another military aircraft during clashes in May, reports the daily Dawn.
The statement marks the first public assertion by India’s top air commander, three months after what was described as the worst military confrontation in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
During the May 7 conflict, Pakistan reported shooting down five Indian aircraft in air-to-air combat, later revising the figure to six. India’s military leadership has acknowledged suffering aerial losses but disputes the number.
Speaking in Bengaluru, Singh claimed India downed “at least five fighters” and a “large aircraft”– possibly a surveillance plane– at a range of 300 kilometres. He attributed most of the alleged kills to India’s Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system and said airstrikes also targeted another surveillance plane and “a few F-16s” inside Pakistani air bases. He described the incident as “the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill.”
Responding on X, Asif called the assertions “ill-timed” and said: Not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed. Pakistan destroyed six Indian jets, S-400 air defence batteries, and unmanned aircraft, while disabling several Indian airbases.
He also suggested that both countries open their aircraft inventories to independent verification, warning that India’s “comical narratives” could increase the risk of “strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment.”
The minister accused Indian leaders of using senior military officers “as the faces of monumental failure” and said Pakistan’s response to any violation of sovereignty would be “swift, surefire and proportionate.”
Former Pakistani envoy Dr Maleeha Lodhi also ridiculed the Indian claim, remarking: It took him several months to count the planes to make this ridiculous assertion!
