India's Operation Sindoor was planned and executed with precision and carefully considered timing, Army Chief Upendra Dwivedi said. The armed forces deliberately avoided striking terror hubs during prayer hours, ensuring that they did not act at a time when people on the other side might be offering Namaz at the terrorist camps.
Dwivedi explained that the forces had operational flexibility and could have struck at any hour, but they chose to hold back at certain times. He summed up the approach by saying: 'sabka malik ek hai (There is one God for all). That is why we chose a time when we knew such prayers were not taking place.'
The military operation was launched in May last year after the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam left 26 people dead, mostly tourists. The attack saw Pakistan-backed terrorists storm a popular tourist valley, triggering a swift Indian military response targeting terror launchpads across the Pakistan border and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) regions.
Pakistan responded with a sharp escalation in the days following Operation Sindoor, launching drones and carrying out shelling. In a span of about a week, Islamabad sent swarms of drones towards India, most of which were successfully intercepted mid-air, though some caused damage in areas along the border.
As losses mounted for Islamabad, Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) reached out to his Indian counterpart and both sides agreed to halt all military actions — on land, in the air, and at sea — effectively on May 10, 2025.
The Army chief further described the operation as a turning point in India's military evolution, saying that it was a 'defining case study' in modern warfare. He also pointed to the growing importance of non-kinetic operations, adding that a significant portion of the effort went beyond the battlefield.
The Army has moved to strengthen its capabilities in this space, including setting up an information warfare organisation and a psychological defence division. However, Dwivedi cautioned that challenges persist, particularly in synchronising actions across strategic, operational and tactical levels.
