India's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval has called out foreign media outlets for misrepresenting facts during the 7-10 May Operation Sindoor, when India and Pakistan got into an armed conflict after Indian tri-services struck nine terrorist targets in Pakistan following the Pahalgam terrorist attack on 22 April.
"We decided to have nine terrorist targets in the criss-cross of Pakistan, it was not in the border areas. We missed none. We hit nowhere else except that. It was precise to the point where we knew who was where. Entire operation took 23 minutes. You tell me one photograph that shows any Indian damage done," Doval stated during a keynote address at the 62nd Convocation Ceremony of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai.
The top security official rejected "foreign press" reports claiming that India had suffered significant or even limited damage due to Pakistani drones and missiles launched inside India after Indian strikes on 7 May.
"Foreign press said that Pakistan did that and this. They wrote these things and put out things. The images only showed 13 air bases in Pakistan before and after 10th May, whether it was in Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Chaklala. I am only telling you what the foreign media put out on the basis of images," Doval stated.
Doval specifically named US media outlet The New York Times for what many in India have described as fake reporting during Operation Sindoor.
"They wrote things... The New York Times... but the images showed 13 air bases of Pakistan before and after 10 May," Doval said.
According to an official document released by the Indian government, Pakistani drone and UCAV attacks against Indian airbases and logistics infrastructure were "effectively neutralised by India’s comprehensive and multi-layered air defence architecture", which include Akash Air Weapons Systems (AWS) and S-400 squadrons.
Further, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and later the Defence Ministry cited satellite imagery to show that Indian strikes hit at least nine Pakistani Air Force (PAF) bases: Nur Khan, Sargodha, Murid, Sukkur Rafiqui, Sialkot, Jacobabad, Pasrur, Chunian, Skardu, and Bholari.