Operation Sindoor Was a ‘Grey Zone’ Mission, Not a Conventional Battle: Army Chief

Chennai, Aug 10: Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi described Operation Sindoor as a unique and unconventional military action, comparing it to a chess match where each side was constantly anticipating the other’s next move.

Speaking at an event at IIT–Madras, he recounted the complexity of India’s decisive strikes in May against terror infrastructure, carried out in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack. “In Operation Sindoor, what we did was like playing chess — we didn’t know what the enemy’s next move would be, nor ours. This is what we call the ‘grey zone,’” he explained.

Gen Dwivedi contrasted this with traditional warfare, where forces commit all resources and fight until victory or sacrifice. In the grey zone, he said, operations occur across multiple domains, just short of full-scale war.

“Both sides were making moves — sometimes we checkmated them, sometimes we went in for the kill, even at the risk of losing our own. That’s the reality of life,” he remarked.

Under Operation Sindoor, the Indian Air Force conducted precision strikes on multiple targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, aimed at dismantling terror infrastructure and eliminating key operatives linked to the Pahalgam attack.