New Delhi, August 26, 2026 — Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan (retd) has offered a detailed clarification on one of the most speculated aspects of Operation Sindoor, stating that an Indian loitering munition searching for Pakistani radars near Sargodha may have inadvertently struck the Kirana Hills area, which is associated with nuclear-related facilities.
Speaking on Tuesday (August 25, 2026) at the ‘VIMARSH’ event on “Operation Sindoor and its Aftermath” organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi, Gen Chauhan emphasised that India did not deliberately target the site. He linked the possible impact to the operational characteristics of the munitions and visuals of smoke that appeared in Pakistani media at the time.
The Clarification
Gen Chauhan addressed recurring questions about whether Kirana Hills had been hit. “At occasions, it’s been asked whether Kirana Hills were hit or not, which is where their (Pakistan’s) nuclear facilities are,” he said. He fully backed the earlier public statement by Air Marshal A.K. Bharti (retd), who was then Director General of Air Operations of the Indian Air Force.
On May 12, 2025, during a media briefing amid the operation, Air Marshal Bharti had responded to speculation by saying: “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation. We did not know about it. And we have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there.” Gen Chauhan described this as the correct clarification that India had not targeted the location.
Providing further operational context, Gen Chauhan explained: “Before those strikes, we had sent in a lot of loitering munitions at Sargodha, and Kirana Hills is about 10 kilometres north of Sargodha. So the loitering munition is looking for radars which are in and around Sargodha, and it has a lifetime, which means it will loiter for about two hours, and once it does not find a target, it comes down and hits somewhere. It must have come and hit one of those hills.”
He added that this could explain the images shown by Pakistani media of smoke emerging from the Kirana Hills area.
Background on Operation Sindoor
Operation Sindoor was launched by Indian armed forces in early May 2025 as a calibrated response to the April 22, 2025, terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians (mostly tourists) were killed. The attack was claimed by The Resistance Front, widely regarded as a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The initial phase on the night of May 6–7, 2025, involved precision strikes on nine terror infrastructure sites linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. These included key locations such as Markaz Taiba in Muridke and Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur. Indian officials stated that more than 100 terrorists were eliminated.
Pakistan responded with drone, missile, and artillery actions, leading to a multi-day military confrontation. India conducted further strikes, including on airbases and related infrastructure. A ceasefire understanding was reached around May 10, 2025, through direct military channels (Director Generals of Military Operations). Gen Chauhan has separately noted that major phases of the operation concluded, though he has described aspects of it as ongoing in a broader sense.
During the confrontation, Indian forces struck targets in the Sargodha area, including aspects of the Mushaf airbase complex. Speculation about Kirana Hills intensified after Pakistani media circulated visuals of smoke in the region and social media claims linked the site to nuclear storage.
Significance of Kirana Hills
Kirana Hills, located in Sargodha district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, form a rocky range historically associated with Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Between the early 1980s and mid-1990s, the area hosted subcritical (cold) nuclear tests and related experiments under programmes such as Kirana-I. It has long been assessed by analysts as containing underground tunnels, storage facilities, and infrastructure linked to nuclear weapons or delivery systems, forming part of a larger military complex connected to the Sargodha/Mushaf airbase area.
The site’s proximity (approximately 10 km north of Sargodha) to areas where Indian forces were actively hunting radars made an inadvertent impact technically plausible under the described rules of engagement for the loitering munitions.
Earlier claims of a radiation leak or major nuclear incident were refuted. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated in May 2025 that, based on available information, there was no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan.
Operational Context of Loitering Munitions
Loitering munitions (also known as kamikaze or suicide drones) are designed to circle an area for an extended period while searching for targets such as radars or other high-value assets. Once a target is identified, they dive and strike. If no suitable target is found within their endurance window—described by Gen Chauhan as around two hours—they are programmed to descend and impact the terrain. This built-in behaviour, combined with the dense deployment around Sargodha prior to larger strikes, forms the basis of the former CDS’s explanation for a possible hit on one of the hills.
Gen Chauhan’s remarks come more than a year after the events and provide the most authoritative Indian account to date of the Kirana Hills episode. They reaffirm that the location was not on the deliberate target list while acknowledging the possibility of an unintended impact consistent with the munitions’ operating parameters and the smoke visuals reported at the time.
The statement adds to the growing body of public disclosures by senior Indian military leaders on the planning, execution, and strategic messaging of Operation Sindoor, which marked a significant evolution in India’s response to cross-border terrorism.
