Followed by the heinous Pahalgam terror attack, when India launched a tactical Operation Sindoor in Pakistan, it spiraled into a four-day clash between the countries. A New York Times journalist remarked that the satellite images showed far less damage than claimed from either sides. Taking to social media, the journalist jokingly questioned whether inflicting no damage to India is a victory for Pakistan. While Operation Sindoor was a precise attack on terrorist camps which took out 100 terrorists, Pakistan’s claims came from social media, as pointed out by their defence minister Khwaja Asif.

Based on the satellite images thus reported by the New York Times, they only pointed towards the damage India inflicted on Pakistani terrorist facilities. On the other hand, the sites Pakistan claimed to hit in India were merely damaged even at places there was evidence of a strike.

#BREAKING The New York Times exposes @OfficialDGISPR lies and says India inflicted much more damage to Pakistan while Pakistan was unable to do so and satellite images do not clearly show any damage as per claims.

Is Pakistan still going to call this a victory? 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/tjV5OSm74K

— Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) May 14, 2025

Battling the airspace attack

Following the day of the military operation launched by India, Pakistan responded by an attempt to target the Indian airspace. Jammu, Udhampur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Bathinda, Nal, Dalhousie, Thoise, Jaisalmer, Uttarlai, Phalodi, and Naliya were among the first to face blackouts after drone sightings. More than 200 domestic flights were cancelled and nearly 5 international flights were re-routed. All major airlines had shut civilain operations in India for three days till May 10 in the affected regions such as Srinagar, Jodhpur, Dharamshala and others. As expressed by Air Marshal A K Bharti, Director General of Air Operations, IAF, on May 11, “There was no damage reported. “These incursions, and mass raids if I could call them from the Pakistani side,” he said, “were thwarted completely.”

According to the Pakistani media and officials, they had “destroyed” the Udhampur airbase – contradicting the visible damage seen on satellite images.

The damage caused

While it is easy to point fingers and claim the damage caused, it is not easy to forget the lives that were lost during the two-week long distrubances. Over 25 lives were lost in the Pahalgam terror attack. Innocent tourists were killed at the behest of separatist ideologies. In an attempt to take down the terrorist led actions, Operation Sindoor led to the tactical attack on the camps in Pakistan. While India reported five daunting jawaans who lost their life in the process, Pakistan reported eleven. Caught in the crossfire, were innocent civilians in Poonch who lost their life to the targetted attacks made on them.