'Show me one photo of Indian damage': Ajit Doval slams foreign media over Op Sindoor reportage

Addressing the 62nd convocation of IIT Madras, Ajit Doval spoke about Operation Sindoor, where he highlighted the 'bias' of foreign media when it comes to covering India's interests.

He said that foreign media reported that "Pakistan did this and that," but images only showed the damage done by the Indian Air Force on Pakistan's bases.

"Foreign press said that Pakistan did that and this. You tell me one photograph, one image, which shows any damage to any Indian (structure), even a glass pane having been broken. They wrote these things. The images only showed 13 air bases in Pakistan before and after 10th May, whether it was in Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Chaklala." NSA Doval said.

"I am only telling you what the foreign media put out on the basis of images. We are capable of doing it (damage to Pakistani air bases)," he added.

On the intervening night of May 9th and 10th, the Indian Air Force, with active support of other forces, struck Pakistani Air Bases and also crippled their Chinese-supported Air Defence systems.

The IAF fired 15 BrahMos missiles to target the Pakistan Air Force base to disrupt their ability to launch aircraft and other operations, said reports.

Doval highlighted how Indian indigenous defence capabilities played a defining role during the conflict, urging the need to develop more indigenous technology.

"We have to develop our indigenous technology. Mention of Sindoor was made here. We are really proud of how much of indigenous content there was. We are proud that some of the best systems were there, whether it was BrahMos missiles, whether it was our integrated air control and command system, whether it was our radars."

"We decided to have 9 terrorist targets in the criss-cross of Pakistan, it was not in the border areas. We hit nowhere else except that. It was precise to the point where we knew who was where. Entire operation took 23 minutes," Doval said.

He also emphasised that Artificial Intelligence is a "game changer" and India needs to make it a "focal point" in order to lead and develop.

"AI is one of the great game changers. AI will change the world at a rate of every year. It will become unrecognisable from everything we do today, and its application will be diverse, not only required for research and development, but also for machine learning, LLMs, defence, robotics, medicine, finance, and everything. If India is going to lead and develop, make it a focal point. This is the one area that we have to develop," he said.

Operation Sindoor was launched as a response to the Pahalgam terror attack.. Indian Armed Forces destroyed nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in air strikes on May 7.

Following Pakistan's retaliation, the Indian Armed Forces significantly damaged their air force bases on the intervening night of May 9th and 10th, including Nur Khan base.