Terror factories destroyed

Indian air strikes in nine places leave Pakistani terrorists paralysed

Army soldiers examine a building damaged by Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir on Wednesday. Pic: AP/PTI

New Delhi: Indian forces targeted the headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba groups in the missile attacks against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday.

Among the nine sites targeted are the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and the LeT's in Muridke, both in Pakistan Punjab. The camps of Hizbul Mujahideen were also razed to the dust.

A Pakistani armed force spokesperson confirmed to BBC in an interview that the IAF had targeted Bahawalpur and Muridke.

India has categorically stated that its actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India's action comes two weeks after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Hindus were targeted.

The terror camps

Bahawalpur became the hub of the JeM terror group after the release of Masood Azhar in exchange for the hijacked passengers of IC-814 in 1999. The group has since then been involved in a series of terror strikes in India, including the Parliament attack in 2001, the strike on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in 2000, the attack on the IAF base in Pathankot in 2016 and the Pulwama suicide bombing in 2019.

Azhar, designated a global terrorist, has not been seen in public since April 2019. He started the terror outfit in January 2000 and received assistance from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the then Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and Sunni sectarian outfits in Pakistan, officials said.

Muridke, 30 km from Lahore, has been the headquarters of the LeT since 1990. It is headed by Hafiz Saeed and responsible for the 26/11 terror siege of Mumbai. It has also carried out terror strikes many other parts of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, Bangalore and Hyderabad, officials said.

Saeed, the shadowy mastermind of the LeT, designated as a terror group by the United Nations Security Council, is in India's most wanted list.

The other targets -- Kotli and Muzaffarabad -- are regions in PoK where both LeT and JeM have for long had camps and training facilities, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Operation Sindoor

The name for the action - Operation Sindoor - is a reference to the red vermillion that Hindu women wear to signify their married status. In the Pahalgam terror attack, the husbands of several women were killed in front of them including an Indian Navy officer.

The terror attack triggered widespread outrage in India and abroad, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowing to deal a "crushing blow to terrorism".

"These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered," the defence ministry said in the statement.

"We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable," it said.

The manner of the attack was also driven by an objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the Nation. It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.

It was deemed essential that the perpetrators and planners of the 22nd April attack be brought to justice. Despite a fortnight having passed since the attacks, there has been no demonstrable step from Pakistan to take action against the terrorist infrastructure on its territory or on territory under its control. Instead, all it has indulged in are denials and allegations. Our intelligence monitoring of Pakistan-based terrorist modules indicated that further attacks against India were impending. There was thus a compulsion both to deter and to pre-empt.

India exercised its right to respond and pre-empt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks. These actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible. They focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India.

Vikram Misri, Secretary, Foreign Affairs

Indian officials said the strikes on all nine targets including Bahawalpur and Muridke were successful. It is learnt that an array of weapons including Scalp deep-strike cruise missiles, the Hammer smart weapon system and guided bomb kits were used in striking the terror camps.

The operation was conducted from 1:05 am to 1:30 am and all the targets were neutralised with clinical efficiency, two women officers -- Col Sophia Qureshi of the Army's Corps of Signals, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, a helicopter pilot of the IAF, said at a media briefing alongside Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary