When to stop fighting

The key to fighting a war successfully, or even launching it, is a clear objective. That’s an entirely political call. It isn’t emotional or purely military

- SHEKHAR GUPTA.

‘Was India wise or hasty in accepting the Pakistani request for a ceasefire in about the 88th hour of Operation Sindoor? Should India have continued fighting, and until when?

‘These questions were revived last week with the release of the comprehensive report of the high-powered group that assessed the operation for the Switzerland-based Centre for Military History and Perspective Studies (CHPM). Its findings have mostly been welcomed in India.

This is as you'd expect, and not merely because it puts India’s aerial losses at about half of what Pakistan claims. More importantly, it says that by the time the truce was called, the Indian Air Force “managed to significantly degrade the enemy’s air defence systems, then concluded the conflict by carrying out a series of spectacular strikes against Pakistan’s principal Air Force stations. Thus, by achieving clear air superiority, India coerced Islamabad into requesting a ceasefire.”

At another point, the report goes on to conclude “Sufficient elements appear to indicate that by the morning of 10 May 2025, the Indian Air Force had succeeded in achieving air superiority over a significant portion of Pakistan’s airspace. This in turn enabled it to continue long range strikes against enemy infrastructure at will...”

Not leaving anything to chance, the report concludes that at the same time, the PAF “had lost the ability to repeat the operations it had conducted so successfully on 7 May 2025, owing to the loss of its forward air-surveillance radars and the threat posed by S-400 systems to its AWACS and standoff weapons delivery platforms...”