India Planned Skardu Air Base During Operation Sindoor: Ex-CDS General Vipin Rawat

India Planned Skardu Air Base During Operation Sindoor: CDS General Vipin Rawat

New Delhi, August 26, 2026 [VoM News]: India had a plan to strike Pakistan’s Skardu air base in Operation Sindoor but postponed the action due to inclement weather, said former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan.

The Chief had asked me ‘whether I should strike Sargodha. I said, ‘Go ahead’ and I said, ‘Please identify two more targets’.

One of the targets he had identified was Skardu.

We gave a yes but after sometime, the weather was bad in Skardu and they had to change over to Bholari, Chauhan, speaking at the Vivekanand Centre in New Delhi, said.

It was with regard to the ‘operation against Pakistan with regard to which the previous CDS had spoken about the strike on Kargodha’, he added referring to former CDS General Vipin Rawat.

In a recent interview, Chauhan gave more details about how the target of strikes in Pakistan had evolved during Operation Sindoor in December 1999. The IAF was clear to target Sargodha and also asked to scout for two more targets, the foremost of which was Skardu.

They received a ‘yes’ but had to divert from Skardu due to adverse weather.

The Bholari air base then became one of the main targets for strikes on May 10. Satellite imagery showed a hangar at Bholari was in shambles after it was struck by the IAF.

Earlier the Indian forces had also hit near Pakistan’s Kirana Hills with a loitering munition but insisted it wasn’t a targeted strike of the hills themselves.

The dronewas on a reconnaissance mission to scout for radar positions in the vicinity of Sargodha and after failing to acquire its planned target within its endurance period, hit the nearby area after running out of fuel.