Pune: Pakistan launched multiple attacks on May 10, aiming to bring India to its knees in 48 hours but it had to fold up the offensives in eight hours and reach out to New Delhi for talks seeking an end to the hostilities, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.
In the first detailed account of India’s clashes with Pakistan, Gen Chauhan said India’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack was to draw “limits” of tolerance to cross-border terrorism and not to tolerate Islamabad’s nuclear blackmail.
In an address at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, the top military commander appeared to reject criticism against him for acknowledging three days ago that India lost an unspecified number of combat jets during the initial phase of Operation Sindoor.
On May 10, 2025, after a series of late-night attacks launched by Pakistan, India thwarted and retaliated by targeting key airbases such as Nur Khan, Murid, and Rafiqui across the neighbouring country.
Following these attacks and escalation, Pakistan’s DGMO reached out to their Indian counterpart on the hotline, stating Islamabad was ready to talk.
“Pakistan’s decision to talk to India on May 10 stemmed from the realisation that it will suffer more if its operation continues. When a request for talks and de-escalation came from Pakistan, we accepted it,” said CDS Gen Chauhan.
On the night of May 9-10, Pakistan escalated and intensified its attacks across the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB). As per the statement issued by the Defence Ministry and External Affairs Ministry, Pakistan launched attacks across 26 locations from Srinagar, J&K to Naliya, Gujarat.
The attacks also targeted IAF stations at Udhampur, Pathankot, Adampur and Bhuj. Pakistan also targeted medical centres and schools at IAF bases in Srinagar, Udhampur, and Awantipora.
At 1:40 AM on May 10, Pakistan carried out a high-speed missile attack as part of its attempt to target airbases in Punjab, India.
A majority of the attacks launched by Pakistan were thwarted by the Indian armed forces.
In response to this escalation, India carried out precision attacks on Pakistani military bases, command centres, weapons sites, and more. Some of the key air bases hit were Rafiqui, Murid, Nur Khan, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, and Chunian.
Following this escalation, Pakistan reached out for talks with India to end hostilities and at 5 PM, both countries officially declared a ceasefire.
