ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military on Monday rejected as “factually inaccurate” a new documentary about a four-day conflict with India last year, accusing New Delhi of attempting to rewrite the outcome of their most serious confrontation in decades.
The two-part documentary, Declassified: Operation Sindoor, premiered on Discovery on Aug. 15 and recounts India’s military campaign against Pakistan in May 2025 through interviews with senior Indian national security and military officials, operational commanders and others involved in the fighting.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, striking what it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in response to an April 22 attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, an allegation Islamabad denied and called for an independent investigation into.
The strikes triggered four days of fighting involving fighter aircraft, missiles, drones and artillery. Pakistan calls its overall military response Marka-e-Haq, or “Battle of Truth,” which included Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, its May 10 strikes against Indian military targets. The two nuclear-armed neighbors agreed to halt hostilities later that day following intense US diplomatic engagement.
“India has not declassified the truth. It has cobbled together a propaganda video to project a military blunder as a successful endeavour,” the Pakistani military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.
“No amount of cinematic reconstruction can change the chronology, erase aircraft losses, conceal military casualties, alter the military engagements that actually took place or convert a battlefield defeat into a self-proclaimed victory.”
India and Pakistan have fought several wars since gaining independence from British rule in 1947, most of them over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan territory that both claim in full but administer in parts. The neighbors have maintained an uneasy peace since their May 2025 conflict, which killed dozens and raised international fears of escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals.
PAHALGAM ATTACK
In its statement, the Pakistani military disputed the documentary’s presentation of Operation Sindoor as punishment for the Pahalgam attack, pointing to India’s subsequent announcement that security forces had killed the three alleged perpetrators more than two months after the May conflict.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament in July 2025 that Indian forces had killed three Pakistani nationals responsible for the Pahalgam attack during an operation on July 28. He said forensic analysis of weapons recovered from the men linked them to the April killings.
“If the alleged perpetrators were eliminated on 28 July, India must explain, who it claims to have punished on 7 May 2025,” ISPR said.
India has said its May 7 operation targeted infrastructure belonging to militant groups it blamed for attacks against Indians rather than saying the strikes were intended to kill the individual Pahalgam gunmen.
The Pakistani military also rejected the documentary’s claim of “100 percent mission success,” repeating Islamabad’s assertion that its forces shot down eight Indian military aircraft during the conflict.
India has acknowledged losing aircraft during the fighting but has disputed Pakistan’s account of the losses. India has separately said it shot down Pakistani military aircraft during the conflict, claims Islamabad denies.
Pakistan said it subsequently launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos using precision-guided rockets and missiles, aircraft, long-range loitering munitions and artillery against 26 Indian military targets.
ISPR said accounts by Indian military officials in the documentary of Pakistani missile, drone and air activity, fighting along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir and the activation of Indian air-defense systems were inconsistent with the documentary’s portrayal of a decisive Indian victory.
CEASEFIRE
Pakistan also challenged the documentary’s account of the end of the fighting, saying its own narration acknowledged that the two countries’ directors general of military operations communicated and agreed to cease military action.
“A cessation of hostilities, facilitated by US, cannot subsequently be repurposed as evidence of unconditional victory,” ISPR said.
The circumstances surrounding the ceasefire have remained disputed. US President Donald Trump announced on May 10 that India and Pakistan had agreed to stop fighting after talks mediated by Washington. Pakistan has credited Washington with helping secure the ceasefire, while India maintains that the cessation of hostilities was negotiated directly between the two militaries.
ISPR said the documentary also presented contradictory accounts of escalation, simultaneously emphasizing India’s surprise strikes and “escalation dominance” while maintaining that New Delhi deliberately limited the conflict and provided Pakistan an opportunity to de-escalate.
The Pakistani military said it remained committed to regional peace and stability but warned that it was prepared to defend the country against another attack.
“Any future military misadventure will be met with a firm, decisive and disproportionate response, after which no amount of cinematic perjury will be able to provide any face-saving to India.”
