An Indian defence attache has claimed that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down six Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft “only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defences”, Indian news outlet The Wire reported on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the PAF confirmed that six IAF jets were shot down late on the night of May 7, after India launched missiles at six Pakistani sites, including in Sialkot and Bahawalpur, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Three of the downed fighters were French-made Dassault Rafales.

This military confrontation took place after New Delhi, without evidence, blamed Islamabad for backing terrorists who killed 26 tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April — an allegation that Islamabad denied.

According to The Wire, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, Indian Navy Captain Shiv Kumar, while speaking at a seminar in Indonesia last month, acknowledged that the PAF downed the Indian fighters.

During his presentation at the event, Kumar acknowledged the loss of Indian planes, though he said he “may not agree [with an earlier Indonesian speaker’s claim] that we lost so many aircraft”.

“After the loss, we changed our tactics and we went for the military installations. So, we first achieved suppression of enemy air defences and then that’s why all our attacks could easily go through using Brahmos missiles,” the Indian defence attache added, referring to Indian missile strikes on Pakistani bases on the night of May 9 and 10.

According to Kumar, IAF fighter jets were “operating under strict political orders from the Modi government not to target Pakistani military installations or air defence systems”, The Wire reported.

“This self-imposed limitation by the government was intended to prevent escalation of conflict in a nuclear environment,” the outlet added, quoting the Indian officer. “It was possibly based on the premise that the Pakistan military would not target Indian fighter aircraft flying in the Indian airspace, when India was not hitting any Pakistani military targets.”

Kumar inferred that the restrictions imposed by New Delhi led to the loss of IAF jets since Pakistan “refused to impose any such limitations”.

“The political directions had meant that IAF had to carry out their missions while deliberately avoiding the most threatening enemy assets, which are typically prioritised in air campaigns to secure air superiority,” The Wire reported.

The Wire also reported that the Indian Embassy in Jakarta said Captain Kumar’s remarks had been “taken out of context” in a statement.

“We have seen media reports regarding a presentation made by the defence attache at a seminar. His remarks have been quoted out of context and the media reports are a misrepresentation of the intention and thrust of the presentation made by the speaker,” The Wire wrote.

“The presentation conveyed that the Indian Armed Forces serve under civilian political leadership, unlike some other countries in our neighbourhood,” the outlet continued. “It was also explained that the objective of Operation Sindoor was to target terrorist infrastructure, and the Indian response was non-escalatory.”