Pakistan has rejected former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan's recent remarks about an Indian loitering munition possibly striking the Kirana Hills near Sargodha during Operation Sindoor in May 2025, clarifying that none of its strategic assets or sensitive infrastructure was compromised.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi responded to Chauhan's remarks by rejecting his claims. "We categorically reject the retrospective claims made by the former Indian chief of defence staff regarding Kirana Hills... No strategic asset or sensitive infrastructure was compromised in Pakistan (during the 2025 military conflict)," Andrabi has been quoted as saying, according to news agency PTI.
The response came after Chauhan, speaking at a talk on 'Operation Sindoor and its Aftermath' recently, addressed speculation surrounding the Kirana Hills during the conflict.
India's strikes during the military confrontation had hit an airbase in Sargodha, while reports had linked the base to an underground nuclear storage facility in the nearby Kirana Hills.
Chauhan, however, noted that Indian forces had not deliberately targeted the Kirana Hills. Instead, he suggested that one of several loitering munitions deployed around Sargodha could have exhausted its loitering time and subsequently struck one of the hills.
"There was a small episode about what Air Marshal Bharti was asked, the Kirana Hills episode. I think I'll clarify this. On occasions, it's been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit; that is where their (Pakistan's) nuclear facilities are," Chauhan said.
He backed the position taken by Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, who was then the IAF's Director General of Air Operations and had told reporters on May 1, 2025: "We have not hit Kirana hills, whatever is there."
Chauhan said Bharti had "rightly clarified that we did not target Kirana Hills".
The former CDS then offered a possible explanation for reports and images suggesting that something had struck the area.
"Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering munitions to Sargodha, and Kirana Hills is about 10 km north of Sargodha," he said.
According to Chauhan, the loitering munitions were searching for radars in and around Sargodha and could remain airborne for around two hours. If a munition failed to locate a target during that period, it would eventually come down and strike somewhere.
"It must have come and hit one of those hills. So that could be one of the reasons as to what people asked... Because Pakistani media also showed some images in which there was smoke coming out from Kirana Hills," he had said.
