Pakistan Rattled by Operation Sindoor Documentary, Launches Late-Night Attack on India's Account

Pakistan’s military has reacted sharply to a new Discovery documentary detailing India’s Operation Sindoor, issuing a late-night statement attacking the film’s portrayal of the 2025 military confrontation and disputing India’s account of the operation. The two-part documentary, Declassified: Operation Sindoor, premiered on August 15 and features first-hand accounts from senior Indian military and security officials involved in the planning and execution of the operation, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi.

The documentary provides an inside account of India’s military response following the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people were killed. Doval said India’s traditional restraint should not be mistaken for weakness and emphasised that the country was prepared to take decisive action against those responsible for attacks on its citizens. The release appears to have prompted an unusually forceful response from Pakistan’s military establishment. At around 2 a.m., Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), issued a statement accusing the documentary of being dramatised and factually inaccurate.

Pakistan particularly objected to the documentary’s account of the Pahalgam attack and the events surrounding Operation Sindoor. Its military also rejected the suggestion that remarks made by Pakistan’s army leadership shortly before the Pahalgam attack could be linked to the subsequent escalation. For India, however, Operation Sindoor represented a significant shift in its response to cross-border terrorism. Rather than allowing another terror attack to pass without a strong military response, Indian forces carried out strikes against terror infrastructure responsible for attacks against India.

Pakistan has continued to promote its own version of the military confrontation. In its latest statement, the ISPR repeated claims that Pakistani forces had shot down eight Indian military aircraft and subsequently struck 26 military targets during Operation Bunyanum Marsoos. Those assertions form part of Islamabad’s broader effort to portray the confrontation as a Pakistani military success. The Discovery documentary, by contrast, places the focus on India’s planning, military capabilities and decision-making during Operation Sindoor.

The conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours lasted several days before an understanding to halt military action was reached on May 10. Pakistan’s military has stressed that the cessation followed communication between the two countries’ Directors General of Military Operations and was facilitated by the United States. Islamabad has also objected to any portrayal of the outcome as an unconditional Indian victory. Yet the very fact that Pakistan’s military responded to the documentary with an extensive statement issued in the early hours underlines how politically and militarily sensitive Operation Sindoor remains for the Pakistani establishment.

The documentary has therefore reopened a battle that extends beyond the battlefield: the contest over how the 2025 confrontation will be remembered. While Pakistan continues to challenge India’s narrative and promote its own claims, the documentary offers viewers an Indian account based on the testimony of senior officials directly involved in the operation. More than a year after Operation Sindoor, its strategic significance remains clear from the continuing reaction in Islamabad. India’s message of combining restraint with the willingness to impose costs on terrorism has become a central element of its security posture, while Pakistan’s latest response shows that the military operation continues to occupy an uncomfortable place in the country’s strategic discourse.