ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), has rejected a newly released Indian documentary on last year’s military confrontation between the two countries, describing it as a “highly dramatised, coloured and factually inaccurate” account designed for domestic consumption rather than historical record.
In a statement released here the other day, ISPR said that more than a year after what Pakistan calls “Marka-e-Haq” — its official name for the four-day conflict of May 2025 — India remained “unwilling to confront the reality” of the episode and had instead produced a cinematic retelling that reshaped the operational narrative.
The military’s media wing said the production relied on senior political and military figures, selectively edited interviews, emotional narration and “Bollywood-style” reconstructions to alter facts and rewrite the outcome of the conflict.
Indian Army says Pakistan targeted 26 sites in operation Bunyan al Marsoos
“For its lack of nuance and historical seriousness, the production is as much tragedy as comedy,” the statement said.
ISPR specifically disputed the documentary’s assertion of “100 per cent mission success,” calling it inconsistent with the operational record.
The military media wing said Pakistan’s armed forces had thwarted India’s aggression during the conflict and shot down eight Indian military aircraft, and had subsequently launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos on May 10, 2025, striking 26 military targets with Fatah precision-guided rockets and missiles, Pakistan Air Force precision munitions, long-range loitering munitions and precision artillery.
The targeted sites, it said, included facilities allegedly used against Pakistani citizens and entities linked to fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan.
The statement also argued that the documentary undercut its own claims by featuring Indian military leadership acknowledging losses sustained during the operation, and it rejected any characterisation of the ceasefire as an Indian victory.
“A cessation of hostilities, facilitated by the US, cannot subsequently be repurposed as evidence of unconditional victory,” ISPR said.
Questioning the documentary’s framing of the operation as retribution for the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, ISPR asked why, if those responsible were eliminated in a raid on July 28, India would separately claim to have already “punished” the perpetrators through strikes carried out on May 7.
Background
It is pertinent to recall here that the conflict traces back to an attack on tourists in Pahalgam, in Indian-occupied Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, that killed 26 people.
India blamed Pakistan-based militants and, on May 7, launched Operation Sindoor — air strikes it said targeted nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, including facilities linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke.
Pakistan denied involvement in the Pahalgam attack and responded on May 10 with Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos, hours before then-US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The Documentary
It may also be added here that the documentary that prompted Monday’s ISPR statement, “Declassified: Operation Sindoor,” is a two-part docuseries produced by Warner Bros Discovery that premiered on Discovery and discovery+ on August 15 — coinciding with India’s 80th Independence Day.
Co-directed by Prabhu Asgaonkar and Manika Berry, it launched the network’s new “Declassified” factual franchise and features interviews with serving and retired Indian military leadership, ground operatives and defence experts, built around what its makers describe as unprecedented access to those involved in planning and executing the operation.
Its most prominent interviewee is India’s National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, who according to the makers speaks publicly about Operation Sindoor for the first time since the conflict.
The series also features former Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan (retd), who discusses the decision-making behind the operation and its conclusion, as well as accounts from the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force describing what the makers call an 88-hour operation.
