Pakistan on Tuesday made a fresh and exaggerated claim of having shot down eight Indian military aircraft during the conflict between the two countries in May 2025.India has never revealed the exact number of aircraft it lost during Operation Sindoor, launched in May 2025 to target terrorist camps in Pakistan. Sources said there is no evidence of India having lost eight planes and described Pakistan’s claim as preposterous.In October 2025, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh had dismissed Islamabad’s claims of causing major losses to the Indian Air Force (IAF) as ‘manohar kahaniyan’ or fanciful tales. “Rather, IAF destroyed or damaged at least a dozen Pakistani aircraft during Operation Sindoor,” the IAF chief had said.Pakistan made its latest claim in the early hours of Tuesday, just two days after a documentary on Op Sindoor was released by Discovery, a TV channel.Pakistan’s Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR) posted the claim on social media on Tuesday.Though the IAF bombed 11 Pakistani air bases on May 10, leading to the cessation of hostilities, the DG-ISPR claimed, “Pakistan’s Armed Forces successfully thwarted Indian aggression and shot down 8 military aircraft.”Pakistan subsequently conducted Operation Bunyanum Marsoos — its own operation to match Operation Sindoor — employing Fatah precision-guided rockets and missiles, the DG-ISPR said. “Pakistan Air Force launched precision munitions, long-range loitering munitions and precision artillery against 26 military targets,” the social media post claimed.Referring to the documentary, the DG-ISPR added it was “difficult to reconcile repeated portrayal of Pakistan being decisively defeated”.The documentary’s account of the cessation of hostilities was also questioned by Pakistan. The narration confirms that hostilities ended through communication between the two DGMOs and an agreed cessation of military action, the DG-ISPR said.“This alone contradicts the attempt to portray Op Sindoor as a unilateral Indian military triumph. A cessation of hostilities, facilitated by the US, cannot subsequently be repurposed as evidence of unconditional victory,” the DG-ISPR claimed.According to the DG-ISPR, when Pakistani air bases were bombed on May 10, the Pakistan DGMO tried to contact Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, the Indian DGMO, through the established hotline. Lt Gen Ghai was unavailable, after which the Pakistan Foreign Office contacted the Indian Embassy in Islamabad. The two DGMOs finally spoke at 3.30 pm.On the documentary’s suggestion of a link between an address by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir on April 16 and the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, the DG-ISPR said it was “conjuring a conspiracy theory out of nothing”.