‘Pakistan Wanted A Ceasefire, India Kept Them Waiting’: What E Defence Chief Said On Op Sindoor

Published 5 August 2026 · local

News india ‘Pakistan Wanted A Ceasefire, India Kept Them Waiting’: What E Defence Chief Said On Op Sindoor ‘Pakistan Wanted A Ceasefire, India Kept Them

News india ‘Pakistan Wanted A Ceasefire, India Kept Them Waiting’: What E Defence Chief Said On Op Sindoor ‘Pakistan Wanted A Ceasefire, India Kept Them Waiting’: What E Defence Chief Said On Op Sindoor Published By, Last Updated: August 05, 2026, 12:22 IST India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 civilians dead. Image for representation (Credits: PTI) Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has revealed that India deliberately delayed responding to Pakistan’s request for a ceasefire during Operation Sindoor, saying the armed forces had “not even executed half" of their planned strikes when Islamabad first reached out. ‘Pakistan Sought Ceasefire Before Half Our Plan Was Executed’ Speaking at ThePrint’s Off The Cuff event, Gen Chauhan said Pakistan contacted India through the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) hotline on the morning of May 10, 2025, seeking a ceasefire. However, New Delhi deliberately kept Islamabad waiting till afternoon because “half of our planned strikes had still not happened".

“The biggest surprise to me was on 10 May, when Pakistan picked up the phone and said they wanted to talk. This was because on 9 May, the kind of rhetoric emerging from their side was that they would sort India out in 48 hours. Within about eight hours, they picked up the phone. We had not even executed half of our plans," Gen Chauhan said while recalling the conflict. According to the former CDS, India was determined to achieve its military objectives before considering a ceasefire, with additional waves of strikes already planned to demonstrate that no military installation inside Pakistan was beyond the reach of the Indian Armed Forces. Also Read: Pakistan Sent JeM Terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, Who Revealed Op Sindoor Damage, For PoK ‘Peace Talks’? Exclusive Gen Chauhan said Pakistan’s decision to seek a ceasefire stemmed from a belief that its strikes on Indian targets had achieved their intended effect. At the same time, Islamabad had witnessed the damage caused by Indian Air Force strikes carried out on the night of May 9 and the early hours of May 10, prompting it to seek an end to the conflict before India escalated further.

He said Indian operations were still in progress when Pakistan initiated contact through the DGMO hotline. “I think that was the biggest surprise. The second thing, which probably wasn’t a surprise but reflected our capability, was that we had better battlefield transparency than the adversary," he said. Explaining the advantage enjoyed by Indian forces during the operation, Gen Chauhan said commanders had a clearer and faster assessment of the battlefield than their Pakistani counterparts, allowing quicker military decision-making. “We knew what our attacks had achieved, what Pakistan’s attacks had achieved, and because we were all looking at the same picture, we could make decisions faster. War is about taking decisions faster so that the enemy is always on the receiving side. We were able to do that," he added. All about Operation Sindoor India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 civilians dead. The operation focused on dismantling terror infrastructure in Pakistan-controlled areas, targeting sites associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).