India confirms aircraft loss in Pakistan conflict

INDIA's defence chief appeared to confirm his country had lost at least one aircraft during the brief conflict with Pakistan earlier this month, he told Bloomberg in an interview.

India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.

More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides. Pakistan claimed its Chinese-supplied jets had shot down six Indian aircraft.

India's chief of defence staff, General Anil Chauhan, called Pakistan's claims that it shot down six Indian warplanes "absolutely incorrect".

But Chauhan, when pressed as to whether India had lost any jets, appeared to confirm New Delhi had lost an unspecified number of aircraft -- without giving details.

"I think, what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down," he told Bloomberg TV, speaking on the sidelines of Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore.

There was no immediate response from New Delhi.

On May 11, a day after the ceasefire, India's Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, speaking to reporters, had said that "all our pilots are back home", adding that "we are in a combat scenario, and that losses are a part of combat".

A senior security source said three Indian jets had crashed on home soil without giving the make or cause.

But until the comments on Saturday (31), India had not officially confirmed any of its aircraft were lost.

"The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets, again targeting at long range," Chauhan added, speaking to Bloomberg.

"Why they were down -- that is more important for us, and what did we do after that", he added.

The recent conflict between the countries was triggered by an attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir on April 22, the deadliest on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory in decades.

New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the Islamist militants it said carried out the attack, charges that Pakistan denied.

(AFP)