New Delhi: Speaking as a keynote speaker at an event in Bengaluru, Indian Air Force Chief Air Marshal A P Singh sought to iron out the controversy created earlier by the Indian Defence Attache to Indonesia who had remarked that the Indian Air Force lost fighter jets in the initial phase of Operation Sindoor because of political constraints.

However, Air Marshal Singh, while listing out “takeaways” from the success of Operation Sindoor, said on Saturday, “There was political will…I am saying that because I hear all sorts of versions. There was a very clear political will, very clear directions, there were no kind of restrictions that were put on us.”

He did not speak of Indian air losses but claimed in his speech that the IAF had downed at least five fighter jets of Pakistan, apart from disabling many of its military hubs.

“We have at least five fighters confirmed killed and one large aircraft, which could be an ELINT aircraft or an AEW&C aircraft, which was taken out from a distance of about 300 km, which is the largest-ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about,” he said.

“If there were any constraints, they were self-made. The forces decided what will be the escalation ladder that we want to ride on; we decided how we want to control the escalation. There were no restrictions on us, full freedom was given to plan and execute,” Air Marshal Singh said at the 16th Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru.

Air Marshal Singh’s remarks came after the Indian Defence Attache to Indonesia Captain Shiv Kumar’s remarks in June 2025 had become the centre of a controversy.

Responding to a previous presenter at a seminar who backed Pakistan’s claim of having downed six aircrafts, including three Rafales, Indian Navy’s Captain Kumar had said, “I may not agree with him that India lost so many aircraft. But I do agree that we did lose some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishments and their air defences.”

He was speaking at a seminar, hosted on June 10 by Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma in Indonesia, themed ‘Analysis of the Pakistan-India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies’.

The IAF chief’s presentation on Operation Sindoor, however, refuted the claim of any political pressure on the armed forces.

He even went on to give an explanation on why the operation was suddenly called off – questions on which were also faced by the Narendra Modi government, outside and inside the parliament.

“Conflict termination is a very important part of war. We can’t afford to be continuously at war. We are meant to deter. If we can deter, there is nothing better than it. ….we should be very clear that we have to reach a stage where we can terminate that (the war) so that we can get on with the routine, get on with the progress of the nation.

Conflict termination has been forgotten. …I think we have set an example,” he said, recalling how at a recent conference experts were only talking about Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Iran, or Israel-Hamas wars but none discussed the recent India-Pakistan conflict.