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Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said India did not deliberately target Pakistan's Kirana Hills nuclear facility during Operation Sindoor last year, but an Indian loitering ammunition may have struck the site after failing to find its intended target.

Chauhan said several loitering munitions had been deployed towards Sargodha, located around 10 km south of Kirana Hills, to target radars in and around the area.

‘It Must Have Come and Hit One of Those Hills’

Explaining the sequence of events, Chauhan said the loitering ammunition had a limited operational lifetime and was designed to search for targets before striking.

"Before those strikes, we had sent a lot of loiter ammunition at Sargodha, and Kirana Hills is 10 km north of Sargodha. So the loiter ammunition was looking for radars, which were in and around Sargodha, and it has got a lifetime. It will loiter for about two hours, and if it doesn't find a target, it will come and hit somewhere. It must have come and hit one of those hills,'' General Chauhan was quoted by ANI as saying.

The remarks indicate that any impact on the Kirana Hills area was not part of India's intended targeting during the operation.

What Is Kirana Hills?

Kirana Hills is a vast rocky mountain range and a designated area under Pakistan's Ministry of Defence in Sargodha district.

Locally known as the “Black Mountains” because of its brownish terrain, the range stretches between the township of Rabwah and the city of Sargodha.

Air Marshal AK Bharti Had Denied Targeting

Chauhan's remarks come after former Director General of Air Operations Air Marshal AK Bharti had said on May 12 last year that the Indian armed forces had not targeted the nuclear facility at Kirana Hills.

Responding to a question during a press conference at the time, Bharti said, “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation. We did not know about it. And we have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there.”

What Happened During Operation Sindoor?

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025, following the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam region that killed 26 people.

The tri-services operation targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). According to the government, more than 100 terrorists were killed in the strikes.

In the days that followed, Indian armed forces responded to Pakistan's attempted retaliatory strikes. On May 10, the Pakistani army reached out to its Indian counterpart, leading to a ceasefire understanding between the two countries.

Following the operation, speculation and social media posts claimed that India had struck the Mushaf Airbase in Sargodha, which was reportedly linked to underground nuclear storage beneath Kirana Hills.

The Indian Air Force denied targeting the facility at the time, and Chauhan's latest remarks reiterate that the nuclear facility was not an intended target.