Avenging April 22 massacre of tourists in Pahalgam, India carried out nine missile attacks past Tuesday midnight specifically targeting terror infrastructures of proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Muzaffarabad, both in Pakistan.
The Ministry of Defence early on Wednesday put out a statement, confirming that India carried out “Operation Sindoor” to hit terrorist sanctuaries, which, it said, was “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature” and did not cover Pakistani military facilities to demonstrate “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”.
However, it did not give any figure of casualty in the cross border strikes in Pakistan. Unofficially also, the MoD and Indian Army, and India Air Force, are keeping quiet on the operational details.
The Ministry of Defence will hold a press briefing at 10 AM to share more details of the counter offensive against Pakistan to avenge death of 26 tourists in Pahalalgam attack that left 17 others injured.
“We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will he held accountable,” the MoD said in its early morning readout, indicating at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vow after the April 22 bloodbath at Pahalgam that India will hunt down terrorists and their backers wherever they are in any part of the globe.
Interestingly, Pakistan’s military spokesperson and Director General of ISPR, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, accepted in their official press conference that they have been hit by Indian missile strikes at differed mosques, leaving 8 dead.
He said four strikes were carried out in Bahwalpur’s Ahmedpur East, destroying the Subhan mosque and accompanying houses. Five civilians were declared dead, Lt Gen Chaudhary said.
In Muzaffarabad, Saiwali Nullah was also targeted, destroying Mosque Billal, and leaving one injured, he said.
Five strikes also took place at Mosque Abbas in Kotli, leaving 2 dead, and four in Muridke dismantling a mosque and leaving one dead, the Pakistan military spokesperson stated.
Sources said that this time, India targeted headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Muridke on the basis of accurate intelligence inputs provided by agencies.
PM Narendra Modi, who has been in consultation with National Security Advisor, Chief of Defence Staff, Chiefs of tri-services and heads of intelligence agencies since the attack, was awake throughout the night to monitor the controlled military action to teach terror war heads in Pakistan a lesson, Defence Ministry sources said.
Unlike Balakot airstrike, where Indian Air Force fighter jets crossed over into Pakistan airspace on 26 February 2019 to target training camp of the proscribed terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, this time missiles have been fired from the Indian side only, said sources. The tri-services participated in the offensive launched by the IAF, said sources.
It is learnt that an IAF aircraft met with an accident in J&K while on a combat air patrol.
After the strike, Defence Minster Rajnath Singh, who was involved throughout in the planning of counter strike, invoked national pride by posting on social media platform X, “Bharat Mata ki Jai” while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that “the world must show zero tolerance for terrorism.”
All the political parties rallied behind the government on the successful airstrikes dismantling the terror infrastructure across the border.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge advocated that national unity and solidarity is the need of the hour and assured his party stands with the armed forces.
“India has an unflinching national policy against all forms of terrorism emanating from Pakistan and PoK,” the Kharge post on X read.
India, simultaneously briefed leading nations like US, and Russia, whom they had taken into confidence earlier to garner global solidarity against Pakistan’s continued support for terrorist activities in India and elsewhere in the world, on the nine strikes it carried out across the border.
Reacting to Indian strike, US President Donald Trump called it a shame and hoped that it would end “very quickly.”
“It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump said to reporters at the White House. “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time,” he added in his brief comment on the episode.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio went on X and stated that he was “monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely.” US, he said, will continue to engage the nuclear-armed Asian neighbours towards a “peaceful resolution.” This was after Adviser Ajit Doval briefed Rubio about their surgical strike against Pakistan terror sanctuaries.
Sources said that India has credible leads, tech inputs and testimony of survivors of April 22 attack to showcase Pakistan involvement in the heinous act of crime against humanity.
India is also supposed to carry out war mock drill across the country to assess civil defence response to any retaliation by Pakistan.
As a measure of caution, India has closed airports including at Dharamsala, Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, and Amritsar, and multiple flights have been cancelled.
Pakistan on its part has been carrying out heavy shelling across the Line of Control and International Border opposite Jammu and Kashmir. Army sources said that three innocent civilians lost their lives in the indiscriminate firing. India army is also responding in proportionate manner, said sources.
Indian Army sources said that Pakistan ISPR has been spreading fake news about 15 locations hit inside India by missiles as a retaliatory strke and that Srinagar airbase has been struck by their airforce. They are also falsely claiming that a brigade headquarter of Indian army has been destroyed in their counter attack, added army sources.
Published on May 7, 2025