India / Pakistan - The Truth About the May 2025 Clash
/Once again, in the narrative surrounding the four-day clash between India and Pakistan (May 7-10, 2025), we witnessed a pattern of disinformation.
Thus, the so-called leading daily newspaper, "Le Monde," ran the headline on May 23: "India-Pakistan: Four Days of War, Two Versions of the Fighting, and Still No Winner."
While others did not hesitate to whisper that India had actually lost its war objective.
Let's first take a look at some history and a review of recent events.
A Summary of the Region's History*
On the night of August 14-15, 1947, the Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, declared the end of two centuries of British rule over the Indian subcontinent.
The former colony was divided into two states: India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. This partition forced nearly 15 million people onto the road: Muslims toward Pakistani territory, Hindus and Sikhs in the opposite direction. It caused riots and massacres that claimed a million lives.
In the fall of 1947, the first Indo-Pakistani war broke out over control of Kashmir, which was annexed to India. A ceasefire was declared on January 1, 1949, along a 770-km "Line of Control" that divided Kashmir into two parts: 37% belonged to Pakistan (Azad Kashmir) and 63% to India (the state of Jammu and Kashmir). Despite this agreement, both states still claimed sovereignty over the entire territory.
Between August and September 1965, the conflict was rekindled by the intrusion into Indian Kashmir of a thousand Pakistani-backed separatists: more deaths!
At the end of 1989, insurgents demanding independence or the annexation of Indian Kashmir to Pakistan engaged in fighting against the New Delhi army. Targeted by the rebels, the Hindu population fled to other regions of India.
In 1999, the Kargil War broke out: New Delhi accused Islamabad of having infiltrated Islamist fighters and Pakistani soldiers into its part of Kashmir to take control of the Siachen Glacier, at an altitude of over 5,000 meters: more deaths.
In 2008, a series of jihadist attacks killed 166 people in Mumbai. India blamed Pakistan and interrupted the peace process begun four years earlier.
In 2019, the suicide bombing in Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir) was claimed by a Pakistani terrorist organization.
As everyone can understand, for nearly 80 years, the same ideology has continued to provoke armed infiltrations, sowing terror and desolation across Indian territory, under the complete indifference of the "international community."
April 22, 2025: Jammu and Kashmir again devastated by a barbaric attack
The Pakistan-based Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow organization of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) party, claimed responsibility for this bloody attack near Pahalgam: 28 dead and 10 injured.
For details, you can read our publication: https://www.sdbrnews.com/sdbr-news-blog-fr/le-cachemire-indien-cible-du-terrorisme-islamique?rq=cachemire
With American support, the Indian government decided this time to react gradually but decisively, with a series of immediate measures starting on April 23 (detailed in the article above).
But there comes a time when you have to say "enough is enough"!
This is what the Indian government did by launching its "Operation Sindoor."
Operation Sindoor: A War on State Terrorism
Before the attack on Pahalgam, the situation in Pakistan was already confused:
Insurgency unrest with the 6 million Baloch people (originally from Iran) living in southern Pakistan; tensions with the Sindhis in the southeast; tensions in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pocket, a hotbed of Islamic terrorist movements, including Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Low credibility of the Pakistani government.
Strong resentment against the Pakistani army.
Calls for the release of Imran Khan, a well-known figure and former Pakistani Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, undoubtedly the victim of being too westernized and too far right in front of the Islamic left.
It is likely that the Pakistani government has chosen to distract its population by exacerbating three anti-Indian sentiments:
Kashmir is Pakistan's jugular vein for trade with China, implying that all internal ills stem from the Indian-held Kashmir barrier...
Using religion to unify Muslim Pakistan, in the face of a non-Muslim India...
Carrying out attacks in Kashmir through proxies... Hence the belligerent speech by General Asim Munir, head of the Pakistani Army, on April 16, 2025, followed by the attack on Pahalgam on April 22, 2025.
Then, Pakistan's total denial of any responsibility for this attack by Islamic terrorists. We will see later that this is a state lie!
Preparation for Operation SINDOOR
The Indian government has therefore launched the preparation phase of this operation:
Identification of terrorist targets and real-time information on their movements; preparation of a targeting plan and operational readiness.
Similarly, the Indian intelligence services and agencies were put into coordinated action to prepare for any possible response from Pakistan.
Finally, the collection of credible evidence after the strikes was coordinated before the strikes were launched. As we know, information manipulation is such that even irrefutable evidence is often insufficient: "there is none so blind as he who will not see"...
Then recommendations were made by the Indian government:
Strike only the infrastructure of the nine terrorist bases.
Do not harm Pakistan's civilian and military infrastructure.
Do not act by surprise against an adversary, Pakistan, which offers comparable technical and operational parity.
React only if the enemy reacts...
Nine terrorist bases were targeted during the night of May 6-7, 2025:
In POJK (Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir):
1/ Sawai Nala (Muzaffarabad) 2/ Syedna Bilal (Muzaffarabad) 3/ Gulpur (Kotli)
4/ Barnala (Bhimber) 5/ Abbas (Kotli)
In Pakistan:
6/ Bahawalpur 7/ Muridke 8/ Sarjal 9/ Mehmoona Joya
Pakistan responded to these targeted attacks with artillery fire.
Therefore, on May 8, India used drones and missiles against Pakistani military airfields and radar stations.
During the night of May 9-10, Pakistan responded by launching missiles at Indian targets.
It appears that the general commanding Pakistani Military Operations (DGMO) took the step of calling the Indian DGMO to discuss a ceasefire, and on May 10, 2025, a ceasefire agreement "with immediate effect" was concluded between Pakistan and India.
For how long? Time will tell.
Operation Sindoor Results
The main terrorist bases targeted by Operation Sindoor were hit, and key officials were neutralized: remember, this was the war aim.
On the Pakistani side, air defenses were damaged: air defense radars at Pasrur, Chunian, and Arifwala.
Similarly, the main Pakistani air bases were hit, causing significant damage: airfields at Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Nurkhan, Sukkur, Bholari, Chaklala, Jacobabad, and Shahbaz.
The Indian Navy prevented the Pakistani Navy from accessing the Arabian Sea.
Indian air defenses were robust, and the damage inflicted on Indian military infrastructure appears to have been minimal.
It should be noted that the Pakistani Air Force appears to have used the cover of commercial aircraft to launch some of its raids against Indian infrastructure.
Was Pakistan's ceasefire request proof of its air superiority?
What about the Indian Air Force's Rafale fighters?
India has equipped its Air Force with 36 Rafale aircraft from Dassault Aviation, through an order placed in 2016. It has just confirmed its satisfaction with owning the French combat aircraft with a new order on April 28, 2025: 26 Rafale Marine aircraft, the first of which will be delivered in 2030. India thus becomes the leading export country for the Rafale Marine.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) used the Rafale during the four-day clashes with Pakistan.
The IAF says it is fully satisfied with the performance of the French aircraft, which it used effectively, including on May 9 and 10, 2025, in interception and air defense missions. She emphasizes that she used the Rafale platforms with restricted rules of engagement, implying that a broader engagement would have caused more damage to the Pakistanis.
The IAF claims to have used decoys to fool Pakistani air defenses and was able to jam Pakistani electronic intelligence.
Questions have been raised following "Pakistan's claims that it largely controlled its airspace and shot down several Indian aircraft."
We asked, and here is India's response:
"If the HQ-9s, J-10s, PL-15s, Chinese weapons used by Pakistan were so superior to us, how were Indian aircraft able to hit all their targets on the first night of May 6, when the Pakistanis were expecting these attacks? Why were they unable to intercept Indian aircraft and missiles on May 9 and 10? Why were none of their missiles able to cause substantial damage to Indian infrastructure? Why didn't they use their J-10s and PL-15s to deprive the Indian Air Force's aircraft of any freedom of movement?”
And he added, however: "There is no such thing as a 100% safe combat aircraft. It's all a question of tactics and use."
These are indeed questions that have received little press coverage, with India considering, incidentally, that the French media have too readily embraced American and Chinese rhetoric denigrating the IAF and the Rafale:
Americans to better sell their F35, while Dassault Aviation is currently scoring significant export points;
Chinese, because their "unfailing" friendship with Pakistan is based on their shared hatred of India and their fear of an India with too much commercial and political influence in the region, and on the fact that it was their planes and missiles that India was able to test in real time in front of the world...
And then, how can we not also question the silence of the French press regarding the true nature of Pakistan?
State Terrorism
Evidence of collusion between terrorist groups and the Pakistani army was revealed during the funerals of terrorist leaders killed in the Indian bombings, which took place in Muridke, among other places, in a camp belonging to the Laskar e Taiba group (LeT, which we discussed at length in our article of April 25, 2025, cited above).
This funeral was led by LeT leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf, classified as a "global terrorist" by the U.S. Treasury Department.
A host of senior officers from the Pakistani Army and the Punjab Inspectorate General of Police participated and prayed alongside him, including:
- Lt. Gen. Fayyaz Hussain Shah, HI (M) – Corps Commander, IV Corps, Lahore
- Maj. Gen. Rao Imran Sartaj – GOC, 11th Infantry Division, Lahore
- Brig. Mohd Furqan Shabbir – Commander, 15th Hy Mech Brigade, Lahore
- Dr. Usman Anwar – IGP, Punjab
- Malik Sohaib Ahmed Bherth – Member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly
Conclusion
It must be emphasized that, given that both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, it was essential to maintain a conventional level of engagement during these four days to avoid any slide into nuclear confrontation.
Civilian influence in Pakistan has further weakened since General Asim Munir took control of the Armed Forces in 2022: an authoritarian who previously headed the Army Intelligence Service (ISI).
At the same time, the funeral in Muridke demonstrates the rapprochement of part of the Army with Islamic terrorism, which could lead to a degree of radicalization during a future confrontation, thus increasing the nuclear risk.
In the future, excessive weakening of Pakistan could therefore lead it to the temptation of nuclear weapons.
This is a very important fact for the entire region.
Alain Establier
* Source: AFP and L’Orient Le Jour
** HQ9: Chinese surface-to-air SAM missile – J-10: Chinese multi-role aircraft – PL-15: Chinese air-to-air missile
Photos credits: Dassault; IAF
