&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Operation Sindoor big reveal: Ex CDS Anil Chauhan clears air on strike at Pakistan's nuclear sites in Kirana Hills")
Former Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan on Tuesday (August 25) said India may have struck Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor last year, but did not deliberately target sites believed to house Pakistan's nuclear facilities.
Speaking at the ‘VIMARSH’ event on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath at the Vivekanand International Foundation, Chauhan explained how Indian loitering ammunition sent to locate radars around Sargodha may have ended up hitting the hills.
"I think I'll clarify this... on occasions, it's been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit or not, which is where their (Pakistan's) nuclear facilities are... Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering munitions at Sargodha and Kirana Hills is about 10 kilometres north of Sargodha. So the loitering ammunition is looking for radars which are in and around Sargodha, and it has a lifetime, which means it will loiter for about two hours, and once it does not find a target, it comes down and hits somewhere," Gen Chauhan said.
"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 kind of images in which there was smoke coming out from Kirana Hills," he added.
Sargodha strike plan changed amid bad weather
Chauhan also shared details of another episode during the operation. He said the Air Chief sought his approval to strike Sargodha after Pakistan requested talks.
"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," Chauhan said.
However, the target was later changed to Bholari because of bad weather.
Chauhan's remarks also brought fresh attention to earlier claims about Kirana Hills. Air Marshal AK Bharti, who served as DG Air Operations during Operation Sindoor, had previously said that India did not strike any targets in the area.
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"Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installations. We did not know about it.
We have not hit Kirana Hills. I did not brief in my briefing yesterday," Air Marshal Bharti said on May 12, 2025, while responding to social media speculation that India had struck a site described as a nuclear hub of Pakistan's armed forces.
India launched Operation Sindoor after the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people. The Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
