India Hits Terror Camps Across Line Of Control Days After Pulwama Attack
India carried out pre-dawn air strikes on terror training camps across the Line of Control on Tuesday, two weeks after 40 soldiers were killed in a terror attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama. At around 3:30 this morning, 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets of the Indian Air Force dropped 1,000 kg bombs on terror camps of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Sources told NDTV that the strikes were “100 per cent successful” and went on “exactly as planned”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with top ministers in the cabinet committee on security at his home in Delhi, after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh flashed a thumbs-up sign at reporters.
Terror launch pads across the Line of Control were destroyed by the laser-guided bombs and so were control rooms of the Jaish, reported ANI. The operation lasted around 19 minutes, say sources.
“The military has taken this necessary step for the country’s security. It was an act of extreme valour. PM Modi had earlier given the armed forces the freedom to take action. Today, the entire country is with the forces,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters in the first official acknowledgement of the operation.
Pakistan claimed that the “no infrastructure was hit” and tried to downplay the impact. “Indian aircrafts’ intrusion across LOC in Muzaffarabad Sector within AJ&K was 3–4 miles. Under forced hasty withdrawal aircrafts released payload which had free fall in the open area. No infrastructure got hit, no casualties,” tweeted Major General Asif Ghafoor of the Inter-Services Public Relations.
The Air Force has put on high alert all air defence systems along the international border and the Line of Control, the news agency reported.
