• US think tanks, independent researchers question Indian claims about ‘Operation Sindoor’
• ISPR says ‘cinematic perjury’ won’t afford New Delhi any face-saving

ISLAMABAD: More than 15 months after India and Pakistan’s most serious military confrontation in decades, New Delhi’s attempt to secure narrative dominance is finding few takers across the globe.

A documentary titled Declassified: Operation Sindoor, is its latest attempt to paint a ‘Bollywood-style’ picture of India’s version of events during the four-day conflagration.

However, independent assessments by American and international research institutions, backed by open-source evidence, have debunked that narrative considerably.

The Stimson Centre’s Christopher Clary, in his detailed study, Four Days in May: The India-Pakistan Crisis of 2025, described the confrontation as the most significant crisis between the two nuclear-armed adversaries in several decades.

Crucially, Mr Clary found evidence that Pakistan achieved an immediate counter-air success on May 7.

In addition, the British American Security Information Council’s 2026 assessment concluded that the fighting ended through a combination of direct military communication and diplomatic engagement, with the United States playing the primary external facilitating role.

The Stimson Centre also confirmed the Trump administration’s role in ending the conflict, which complicates India’s insistence that the ceasefire was essentially a bilateral outcome.

President Donald Trump had repeatedly claimed that Washington intervened to stop the fighting. On May 10, he announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after what he described as a “long night of talks mediated by the US.”

Trump later said Washington had threatened to withhold trade if the fighting continued and offered increased trade if the two countries chose peace. India disputed that account, insisting that trade had not been discussed with American officials.

‘Cinematic perjury’

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military warned India that “no amount of cinematic perjury” would be able to provide it any face-saving, and warned New Delhi that any future military misadventure would be met with a firm, decisive and disproportionate response.

In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) slammed India’s “Bollywood-style” documentary, saying it had “cobbled together a propaganda video to project a military blunder as a successful endeavour”.

“More than a year after Marka-i-Haq, India refuses to face the harsh reality.

Instead of conceding defeat in a failed venture, India has decided to colour history in her preferred hues.”

“To achieve this mutilation of history, Indian content creators have produced a highly dramatised, coloured and factually inaccurate account of so-called Operation Sindoor, packaged as a documentary featuring senior political and military leadership of India,” ISPR said.

“For its lack of nuance and seriousness, the documentary can be characterised as a tragedy and a comedy at the same time. Selectively edited interviews, emotional narration and cinematic Bollywood style reconstruction have been used to alter established facts and rewrite the operational outcome,” it said.

It also disputed India’s claim of “100 per cent mission success,” saying Pakistan’s armed forces had thwarted Indian aggression during Marka-i-Haq and shot down eight military aircraft.

According to ISPR, the documentary itself acknowledged extensive Pakistani missile, drone and air activity, LoC engagements and Indian air-defence activation, contradicting claims of decisive Indian dominance.

Anwar Iqbal in Washington also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2026