The Union government on Saturday said that social media posts claiming that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that no Indian soldiers were killed during Operation Sindoor were “deliberately misleading and factually incorrect”.

The defence ministry said that the social media posts “selectively quoted an isolated portion” of Singh’s speech in Parliament on July 28 to falsely imply that the minister claimed that no Indian soldiers were killed during the operation.

The clarification came a day after the names of five Indian Army personnel and one Indian Air Force staffer who were killed during Operation Sindoor were published in the Roll of Honour section of the National War Memorial website.

This was the first time that the government formally disclosed the identities of the military personnel killed during the operation. The deaths of the personnel had been previously acknowledged. The six personnel had been conferred with gallantry awards in August 2025.

After the names of the six personnel were published in the Roll of Honour, Congress leader Pawan Khera accused Singh of misleading Parliament, and alleged that the government “concealed the sacrifice” of those killed during the operation.

Khera had cited a clipping from the defence minister’s address to Parliament in which he had said: “If you have to ask a question, ask whether any harm came to our brave soldiers during this operation. The answer to that is no.”

The defence ministry on Saturday said that Singh’s remark was in response to an “entirely false” narrative on media outlets and on social media that Indian pilots had been lost during Operation Sindoor.

“It was in direct reference to this specific and mischievous narrative that the Raksha Mantri made the statement in question,” the ministry said. “His remarks were, therefore, a targeted and contextually specific response to a falsehood that was gaining dangerous traction at that moment.”

The six personnel whose names were published in the Roll of Honour section of the National War Memorial website were Subedar Major Pawan Kumar, Rifleman Sunil Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar, Agniveer Murali Naik, Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh and Air Force Sergeant Surendra Kumar.

On May 7, 2025, the Indian military carried out strikes on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which had killed 26 persons on April 22, 2025. The two sides had reached an “understanding” to halt firing on May 10, 2025.

On Saturday, the Integrated Defence Staff clarified that homage had been paid to the six personnel “at the earliest opportunity”, before the recent reports in the matter.

The military said that during a press conference on May 11, 2025, the director general of military operations had “paid solemn tribute to these brave soldiers and specifically acknowledged their sacrifice in the line of duty” during Operation Sindoor.

During the Army Day Parade on January 15, the Army chief had presented the Sena Medal (Gallantry) to the families of three of the personnel, the Integrated Defence Staff said in a statement. The Air Force chief had also done this in October at a ceremony.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.