New Delhi, August 26, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has said an Indian loitering munition may have struck Pakistan’s Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor in 2025, while stressing that the strategically sensitive location was not deliberately targeted by Indian forces.
Speaking at the ‘VIMARSH’ event on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath at the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi on Tuesday, Chauhan said Indian forces had deployed several loitering munitions towards Sargodha to search for radar targets.
Kirana Hills is located around 10 km north of Sargodha. According to Chauhan, the weapons had a limited loitering time and, if they failed to identify a target, could eventually come down and strike an area nearby.
“Bharti had rightly clarified that we did not target Kirana Hills,” Chauhan said, referring to retired Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, who served as the Indian Air Force’s Director General of Air Operations during Operation Sindoor.
Chauhan explained that one of the loitering munitions searching for radars around Sargodha may have run out of fuel and subsequently hit one of the hills.
Earlier, in May 2025, Bharti had said the Indian armed forces had not targeted the reported nuclear installation at Kirana Hills.
Chauhan also disclosed that the Indian Air Force had received approval to strike Skardu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir during Operation Sindoor. However, adverse weather conditions forced the military to abandon that plan and switch to Bholari.
“The Chief had asked me whether he should strike Sargodha. I said, ‘Go ahead’ and added, ‘Please identify two more targets.’ One of the targets he had identified was Skardu. We gave a ‘yes’, but after some time, the weather was bad in Skardu, and they had to change over to Bholari,” he said.
The IAF subsequently struck a hangar at Bholari on May 10, which emerged as one of the prominent targets of India’s air campaign during Operation Sindoor.
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