Months following the tense but short-lived four-day war in May, Pakistan has unveiled new school textbooks that offer a version of events differing radically from established accounts. The updated curriculum depicts Pakistan as the winner, even though evidence already indicates heavy losses suffered by the country during the fighting.
Revised Pakistan curriculum
As per the revised narrative, hostilities started on May 6, 2025, when India purportedly made an "unprovoked" attack after issuing what Pakistan refers to as "false allegations" regarding a massacre in Kashmir's Pahalgam.
In fact, 26 civilians were massacred by militants supported from the other side of the border, leading India to start Operation Sindoor on the next day. New Delhi has maintained that its precision strikes targeted nine terror hideouts of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, while avoiding civilian infrastructure.
The textbooks further claim that Pakistan’s armed forces retaliated only against Indian military positions. Reports and open-source intelligence, however, indicate that Islamabad escalated the conflict with drone and missile strikes on Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar and over two dozen other locations, many of them civilian. India responded with targeted operations that destroyed Pakistan’s HQ-9 air defence system in Lahore and hit sites in Sialkot and Islamabad.
Perhaps the most striking revision is the description of Pakistan’s Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos, presented as a large-scale offensive that destroyed 26 Indian airbases. According to the media reports, Defence briefings and satellite imagery instead showed Indian strikes disabling several key Pakistani airbases, including Murid, Nur Khan, Rafiqui, Sargodha, Chaklala and Rahim Yar Khan. The continued non-operational status of the Rahim Yar Khan facility has since been cited as evidence of the damage. Photographs released by India of operational aircraft and intact air defence systems further contradicted Pakistan’s version of events.
The textbooks also assert that India, after suffering “heavy losses,” appealed for peace, with Pakistan agreeing only under pressure from then-US President Donald Trump, whereas available records suggest otherwise. India apparently remained resolute, threatening increased action if fighting persisted.
The eventual cessation of hostilities was negotiated between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two nations, with Washington having no official involvement despite protestations to the contrary.
