By Ajay Kumar
India was dealing with three adversaries during Operation Sindoor as China and Türkiye were also playing a crucial role in supplying military hardware to Islamabad, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh said on Friday. He said Beijing was backing Islamabad and providing all possible support during the four-day conflict between the Indian and Pakistani militaries in May. Singh said India was handling three “adversaries” at the border, adding that China was providing live location details of Indian forces to Pakistan. While addressing the industry chamber FICCI, the senior official said China also used the India-Pakistan conflict like a “live lab” available to test various weapon systems. “We had one border and two adversaries, actually three. Pakistan was in the front. China was providing all possible support. 81% of the military hardware with Pakistan is Chinese… China is able to test its weapons against other weapons, so its like a live lab available to them,” Lt Gen. Singh said. “Turkey also played an important role in providing the type of support it did… When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan had the live updates of our important vectors, from China… We need a robust air defence system…” he added. The top army official highlighted China’s ancient military strategy of “36 stratagems” and killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife” to support the point that Beijing extended all possible help to Pakistan to harm India. The Deputy Chief of Army Staff, who looks after the Indian Army’s capability development and sustenance vertical, said Beijing’s support to Islamabad was not surprising as 81 per cent of the military hardware of the Pakistani armed forces are from China. “He (China) would rather use the neighbour to cause pain (to India) than getting involved in a mudslinging match on the northern border,” Lt Gen. Singh said. “Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support. And there was no surprise because, if you look at the statistics in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese,” he said. Lt Gen. Singh said Turkiye also played an important role in providing help to Pakistan. “We saw numerous drones coming and landing in the face of war, during the war, along with the individuals who were there,” he added. ‘Lessons From Operation Sindoor Explaining the details of Operation Sindoor, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff said there are a few lessons from Operation Sindoor that the forces have learnt. “The strategic messaging by leadership was unambiguous… There is no scope of absorbing the pain the way we did a few years ago… The planning and selection of targets was based on a lot of data that was collected using technology and human intelligence,” he said. “So a total of 21 targets were actually identified, out of which nine targets we thought would be prudent to engage… It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged. A considered decision was taken that it will be tri-services approach to send the right message that we indeed are an integrated force…” he said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10. India destroyed a number of airbases of Pakistan, inflicting significant damage to the neighbouring nation.