Masterly stroke.

On 7 May, "the Indian Armed Forces launched 'Operation Sindoor', hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir," but the actions were "measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted." pib.gov.in. US President Donald Trump claimed he stopped the conflict. "I said, come on we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it, let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade," he said. In response, "India has never accepted and will never accept mediation by any third party to settle issues with Pakistan Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Trump," but Trump "repeated his claim about brokering a ceasefire between the two neighbors." DH.  Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said that "India did lose some fighter jets during the strikes" but "did not specify the exact number of jets India lost but asserted that Pakistan's claim of having shot down six IAF aircraft, including three French-origin Rafales, was 'absolutely incorrect'." TOI. India's defence attache to Indonesia, Navy officer Captain Shiv Kumar said India lost planes because of restrictions imposed by the government on striking Pakistani military establishments. HT. Our pilots were hanging in the sky as target practice by Pakistani aircraft. We are told none died. Maybe the Pakistanis fired small soft missiles which damaged the plane but did not hurt our pilots. A conflict of friendly hugs. After nearly two months, on 4 July, the deputy chief of army staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh revealed that China and Turkey were actively helping Pakistan. Turkey supplied Bayraktar drones and trained personnel while China provided "real-time intelligence visibility into India". Indigenous equipment "scheduled for delivery by January or October-November was not available during the operation." He described the "ceasefire decision as a 'masterly stroke' to end the conflict at the right moment." BT. Pakistan has friends who help it with arms and intelligence when required, but India has none. We are told that no pilot was lost despite being restrained from defending themselves. But then, this government has a habit of hiding casualties for electoral purposes. "A BBC Hindi investigation reveals that Indian officials quietly paid compensation to the families of more people than they admit died in a deadly crowd crush at Kumbh Mela." "The official death toll is 37, but the BBC found 26 additional cases where families received partial compensation in cash, and 18 more deaths where no payment was made." BBC. "Four years after the deadly delta wave of Covid-19," the Civil Registration System (CRS) 2021 report reveals "The total number of deaths registered in 2021 was 10.2 million. This was also about 2 million more than 2020 - an increase of nearly 26%." The Wire. In July 2021, the government officially recorded only 414,000 Covid-19 deaths, whereas the WHO estimated 3.4-4.7 million deaths from Covid. BBC. We don't know how many planes were lost, if any pilot was sacrificed or why we stopped suddenly. If Mr Trump phoned in the nick of time, it was a 'masterly stroke' of luck. At the very least, the cost of the three lost Rafale jets would come to $864 million (Bulgarian Military). Don't fight for elections. Cost too high.