New Delhi:
Pakistan’s claims that India had targetted its religious sites were shot down by the foreign ministry today, with a sharp reminder — that it was Pakistani shelling from across the Line of Control that has destroyed a Gurdwara and killed several Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch.
“These claims are completely false again. Pakistan is misusing religious sites to radicalise and indoctrinate terrorists,” said foreign secretary Vikram Misri. Yesterday, Pakistan launched “targeted attacks on Sikhs, a gurdwara in Poonch, in which three people were killed,” he pointed out.
Altogether, shelling and firing from across the Line of Control has cost 16 lives and 59 people have been injured he said.
Operation Sindoor, the government and army has repeatedly underscored, was non-escalatory, precise, controlled and measured, in which terror bases across 9 places in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir have been destroyed.
Mr Misri also said that the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam was the “original escalation” by Pakistan, to which India has responded.
“Pakistan escalated on April 22, we are only responding to escalation. If further escalation, the response will be in the appropriate domain,” Mr Misri said.
In its statement on Operation Sindoor, India had specifically mentioned that Pakistani military establishments were not targeted. Early today, Pakistan attempted to target a number of military targets in northern and western India including Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, using drones and missiles.
But its efforts were foiled by the armed forces, which later responded by targeting Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. The government said the Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised.
The government said the Indian response was “in the same domain (and) with the same intensity” as the attacks launched by Pakistan.