Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan (retd) on Tuesday said the Indian armed forces “did not target” Pakistan’s Kirana Hills, which is reported to house a nuclear facility, and suggested that a loitering munition may have inadvertently struck a hill in the area after losing power.Clarifying the issue during a talk on ‘Operation Sindoor and its Aftermath’, Gen Chauhan (retd) said a large number of loitering munitions had been deployed against targets in Sargodha and that one of them might have come down after losing its propulsion capability.He also backed remarks made by Air Marshal AK Bharti (retd), who, as the then Director General of Air Operations (DGAO) of the Indian Air Force, had told reporters on May 12, 2025: “We have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there.”India launched Operation Sindoor against nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in May 2025, killing more than 100 terrorists in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.During the subsequent military confrontation, India struck an airbase in Sargodha. Reports later suggested that the base was linked to an underground nuclear storage facility in the Kirana Hills area.Speaking at an event hosted by the Vivekananda International Foundation, Gen Chauhan (retd) also said Operation Sindoor was “still ongoing”, although its major phases had concluded.The former CDS also disclosed details of a key meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29.According to Gen Chauhan, the meeting decided that Pakistan should be taught a “big lesson” through an “unthinkable” action, reflecting India’s resolve that cross-border terrorism would no longer be tolerated.Prime Minister Modi told the armed forces to “do it at your own time, but ensure there is no reason for failure” and emphasised that India should have evidence of the operation’s success, the former CDS said.Gen Chauhan suggested that Bahawalpur was specifically included among the targets discussed during the meeting and that night-time strikes were chosen to minimise civilian casualties.