New Delhi, August 25, 2026: India may have struck Pakistan’s Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor, but the hit was not a deliberate attack on the strategically sensitive area, former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has said. His remarks provide the clearest explanation yet of reports and satellite imagery suggesting that the hills were hit during the military operation in May 2025.
Speaking at the Vivekanand International Foundation’s VIMARSH event on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath, Chauhan explained that Indian loitering munitions had been deployed around Sargodha to search for Pakistani radar installations. Kirana Hills lies roughly 10 kilometres north of Sargodha and is associated with Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, making reports of an Indian strike there particularly sensitive.
Why Kirana Hills may have been hit
According to Chauhan, the Indian weapons were not assigned Kirana Hills as their intended target. Instead, loitering munitions were sent toward the Sargodha area with the objective of locating radars.
These weapons can remain airborne for a limited period while searching for a target. Chauhan said the missions could loiter for around two hours. If a suitable target was not detected within that period, the weapon would eventually descend and strike an available point.
That, he suggested, could explain what happened at Kirana Hills.
In other words, the reported impact appears to have been a consequence of the weapon’s mission and endurance rather than an Indian decision to deliberately attack Pakistan’s nuclear-related facilities. Chauhan said the munition “must have come and hit one of those hills,” while noting that Pakistani media had also circulated images showing smoke in the area.
The Sargodha connection
Sargodha was an important part of the military picture during Operation Sindoor. Indian forces were operating against Pakistani military infrastructure and attempting to identify and neutralise radar systems that could affect air operations.
Chauhan's explanation places the Kirana Hills incident within this wider operation. The intended mission was focused on radar detection around Sargodha, rather than on striking a nuclear facility.
This distinction is significant because an intentional attack on a location connected with Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure could have carried considerably greater strategic and diplomatic implications.
What happened to the planned Skardu strike?
Chauhan also disclosed another detail about the decision-making process during Operation Sindoor.
He said the Air Chief had sought approval to strike Sargodha after Pakistan indicated that it wanted to open talks. Chauhan said he approved proceeding with the strike and asked that two additional targets be identified.
One of those targets was Skardu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The plan was subsequently changed because of bad weather in the Skardu area, with the mission shifted to Bholari instead.
The episode illustrates how rapidly military plans could change during the operation, with commanders weighing operational opportunities against weather, risk and broader objectives.
Risk versus political objectives
Chauhan also offered a broader assessment of how military decisions are made during a conflict.
He stressed that every military option carries a particular level of risk and must be evaluated against the political objective it is intended to achieve. According to him, successful decision-making involves balancing the potential military gains against the risks associated with a particular course of action.
His comments are significant because Operation Sindoor involved highly sensitive targets and operations conducted in a nuclear-armed regional environment. Precision, intelligence, timing and escalation management therefore played an important role alongside conventional military objectives.
Why the Kirana Hills clarification matters
The Kirana Hills episode had attracted attention because of the area's reported connection with Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure. Earlier discussions and imagery had raised questions about whether India had intentionally targeted the location.
Chauhan's latest explanation indicates that the answer is more nuanced: India may indeed have hit Kirana Hills, but the location itself was not the intended target.
His account suggests that the munition was searching for radar installations around Sargodha and, after failing to find a suitable target within its operational endurance, ultimately struck the hills.
That explanation also helps reconcile two seemingly conflicting claims: reports that there was an impact around Kirana Hills and earlier statements that India had not deliberately targeted the area.
Operation Sindoor's continuing lessons
Chauhan said that Operation Sindoor remains relevant well after its main combat phase because its lessons can help shape India's future military planning.
He argued that assessments of the operation should consider the weaknesses identified during the fighting, the measures subsequently taken to address those shortcomings and the rapidly changing nature of warfare.
The former CDS also pointed to wider global uncertainty as another factor complicating military planning. Modern conflicts increasingly involve drones, precision weapons, surveillance systems, electronic warfare and rapidly changing operational conditions.
The Kirana Hills episode itself demonstrates one aspect of that complexity. A weapon launched with one objective can, under certain circumstances, end up producing an unexpected result when its search mission, endurance and target-selection conditions intersect.
Bottom line
General Anil Chauhan's remarks provide a new explanation for the mystery surrounding Kirana Hills during Operation Sindoor. The area may have been struck, but according to his account, it was not intentionally selected as a target.
The Indian mission was focused on locating radars around Sargodha. A loitering munition that failed to find its intended target within its available endurance may subsequently have struck Kirana Hills.
The clarification is important because it distinguishes an unintended operational outcome from a deliberate attack on Pakistan's nuclear-linked infrastructure—a distinction with significant military and strategic implications.