Best time would have been early morning during Azaan, but…: CDS Chauhan shares why India hit Pakistan at 1:30 am

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said the first strikes under Operation Sindoor were carried out at 1 am to avoid civilian casualties across the border, even though the ideal time would have been early morning during the Azaan.

“Why did we strike at 1:30 at night? That is the darkest time, it would be the most difficult to get satellite images, photographs, and collect evidence. Yet, we struck at 1 or 1:30 at night. Why was that? It was for two reasons. First, we had confidence in our capabilities that even at night we would be able to get imagery. And the second important reason was that we wanted to avoid civilian casualties,” said the CDS.

Operation Sindoor was launched in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, mostly tourists.

“Earlier, we did the Balakot operation, but we didn’t have satellite images or photos… But what we did at 1 am now (Operation Sindoor), despite difficulty in collecting evidence in the darkness of night, was due to twin reasons — first, we had confidence in our capabilities that we could take imagery, and the second, we wanted to avoid civilian casualties.

“The best (option) would have been the time of 5.30 am or 6 am… But that time of the first Azan or Namaz… many civilian lives would have been lost. We wanted to avoid that completely,” Gen Chauhan said.

He said that India was monitoring the neighbouring nation’s flying activities for some time and chose the strike on the night of May 7, as the weather was clear with no rain prediction.Contrary to the general notion that the army was engaged at seven targets and the air force at two, the “navy was also involved in the strikes with S400 and S120, and deployment of navy commandos in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab in addition to the Arabian Sea”, he said.”During Uri and Balakot, we chose land and air medium, but in this operation, a surprise element was there as we adopted a new strategy, which was needed for success, and used drones, the capability of which we acquired,” Gen Chauhan said.

He said the evolving character of warfare is now driven more by technology than the sheer number or territorial occupation.

“Modern warfare demands that we fight today’s conflicts with tomorrow’s technology. The battlespace is no longer limited to traditional domains of land, air, and sea and has expanded to include space, cyber, the electromagnetic spectrum, and even the cognitive domain. In recent operations, this shift was evident.

What is Operation Sindoor?

Nine terror-linked sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) were targeted. These locations were reportedly connected to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — two groups frequently accused of sponsoring terror attacks in India. According to sources cited by ANI, Indian forces carefully selected the targets to go after senior terrorist leadership. The strikes were part of a joint operation by the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, employing precision strike weapons.