Former CDS Anil Chauhan Says Indian Loitering Munition May Have Inadvertently Hit Pakistan’s Kirana Hills During Operation Sindoor

New Delhi, August 26, 2026 — Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan (retd) has clarified that an Indian loitering munition deployed during Operation Sindoor may have unintentionally struck the Kirana Hills area near Sargodha in Pakistan, but that the site was not deliberately targeted by Indian forces.

Gen Chauhan made the remarks on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at the ‘VIMARSH’ event on “Operation Sindoor and its Aftermath” organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi. Addressing one of the more persistent questions around the operation, he said the munition had been searching for Pakistani radar systems around Sargodha and, after failing to find a target within its operating window, may have descended and hit one of the hills in the Kirana range.

“At occasions, it’s been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit or not, which is where their (Pakistan’s) nuclear facilities are,” he said, backing the earlier public clarification issued by Air Marshal A.K. Bharti (retd), then Director General of Air Operations of the Indian Air Force. Gen Chauhan said Air Marshal Bharti had given the correct explanation when speculation was running high during the conflict.

During a media briefing on May 12, 2025, Air Marshal Bharti had addressed the rumours directly, saying: “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation. We did not know about it. And we have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there.” Gen Chauhan said that statement remained the accurate position: India had not set out to strike the location.

Explaining the operational backdrop, the former CDS said Indian forces had launched a large number of loitering munitions towards Sargodha before the main strikes. Kirana Hills lies about 10 kilometres north of Sargodha, he noted, and the drones were tasked with locating radars in and around that area. Because such weapons have a limited endurance, he said, they can remain airborne for about two hours before descending if no target is found.

“It must have come and hit one of those hills,” he said, suggesting that the smoke seen in Pakistani media from the Kirana Hills area could be explained by an unintended impact from one of those munitions.

Why Kirana Hills drew attention

Kirana Hills, in Pakistan’s Sargodha district of Punjab province, has long been associated with the country’s nuclear programme. The rocky range is believed by analysts to contain underground tunnels, storage areas and other infrastructure linked to nuclear weapons or delivery systems, and has historically been connected to the military complex around the Sargodha, or Mushaf, airbase area.

The area also has a documented history of nuclear-related activity. Between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, it hosted subcritical, or “cold”, nuclear tests and related experiments under programmes such as Kirana-I. That background helped fuel intense speculation after visuals of smoke from the region began circulating in Pakistani media during the May 2025 confrontation, alongside social media claims that the site had been hit.

Gen Chauhan’s explanation tied that speculation to the geography of the strike area. Since the loitering munitions were operating around Sargodha and Kirana Hills is close by, he suggested that an errant weapon could have impacted the hills even though they were not part of the intended target set.

The clarification also fits with earlier denials of any nuclear incident. In May 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that, based on available information, there had been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan. That statement helped counter reports suggesting a major nuclear emergency after the smoke visuals appeared online.

Operation Sindoor and the Sargodha strikes

Operation Sindoor was launched by Indian armed forces in early May 2025 as a calibrated response to the April 22, 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed. The attack was claimed by The Resistance Front, which is widely viewed as a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The first phase of the operation took place on the night of May 6–7, 2025, when Indian forces carried out precision strikes on nine terror infrastructure sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The targets were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen, and included major centres such as Markaz Taiba in Muridke and Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur. Indian officials said more than 100 terrorists were eliminated in those strikes.

Pakistan retaliated with drone, missile and artillery fire, leading to a multi-day military confrontation. India then carried out additional strikes, including against airbases and related infrastructure. A ceasefire understanding was reached around May 10, 2025, through direct communication between the two militaries’ Director Generals of Military Operations.

Within that wider exchange, Indian forces also struck targets in the Sargodha area, including parts of the Mushaf airbase complex. The combination of those strikes, the deployment of loitering munitions and the appearance of smoke in the region helped drive the separate line of speculation about Kirana Hills.

Gen Chauhan has previously said that the major phases of Operation Sindoor are complete, while also describing aspects of the operation as continuing in a broader sense. His latest remarks provide the clearest public Indian explanation so far of the Kirana Hills episode and reinforce that the site was not on the deliberate target list.

Loitering munitions, sometimes called kamikaze or suicide drones, are designed to remain airborne over an area while searching for a target such as a radar or other high-value asset. If a target is found, they dive onto it; if not, they eventually descend and impact the ground once their endurance is exhausted. Gen Chauhan said that behaviour, together with the proximity of Kirana Hills to Sargodha, made an accidental strike plausible.

His comments add another layer of detail to the public record on Operation Sindoor, which has already emerged as one of the most closely examined Indian military responses to cross-border terrorism in recent years.