Military analyst Tom Cooper on Op Sindoor’s element of surprise – Firstpost

When India struck terrorist facilities in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) in Operation Sindoor, the element of surprise was such that Pakistan’s military could not mount a response for 50 minutes, military analyst Tom Cooper said.

Following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 2025 and struck terrorist facilities in POJK and Pakistan. After Pakistan responded with strikes on Indian military and civilian areas, India retaliated with strikes on Pakistan’s military sites, targeting its air defences, airfields, radar installations, and other military infrastructure over the four-day conflict.

After four days of conflict that saw exchanges of missiles, drones, and cross‑border artillery fire, Pakistan requested a ceasefire on May 10 that India granted.

In an interview at the Rising Bharat Summit, Cooper said that, contrary to how Pakistan portrayed the conflict, he and his fellow researchers found in an analysis of Pakistan’s Urdu‑language social media posts that there were no reports of a Pakistani response until 50 minutes after Indian strikes were first reported.

Cooper said no one else in the West had conducted such an analysis of Urdu‑language posts on Pakistani social media, so they were not aware of these findings.

By the time Pakistani Urdu‑language social media posts began referring to Pakistani military movement, such as fighter aircraft taking off somewhere and flying low over cities elsewhere, Indian aircraft had already returned to their bases after carrying out the strikes, Cooper said.

As for Pakistani officials’ claims of shooting down Indian aircraft, including a Rafale fighter plane, Cooper said Pakistan was resorting to such assertions, which increased the number of aircraft allegedly downed with each retelling, because it had nothing else to show.

Initially, Pakistan had claimed that it had downed five Indian fighters, including a Rafale, and later raised the claim to six, including three Rafales. While India admitted losing aircraft later, it did not disclose the specifics.