India Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday that the Indian Air Force had carried out a strike inside Pakistan, targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp. Gokhale said A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen [suicide] action.”
Gokhale said that when India selected the target, it aimed to ensure that civilian casualties would be avoided. The facility that was attacked is located in a thick forest, on a hilltop, far away from any civilian presence, he said.
Here’s what we know about IAF Air Strike in Pakistan so far:
Hundreds of Fidayeen and their trainers were shifted from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to a five-star, resort-style camp in a hilltop forest in Balakot after the Pulwama attack, providing Indian forces with “a sitting duck target” when they carried out an air strike early Tuesday.
If sources to be believed, up tp 350 terrorists have been killed in IAF strike in PoK. They said at least 325 terrorists and 25 to 27 trainers were at the camp during the strike. Everyone at the camp was sleeping and Pakistani defence establishment had no clue that the attack was coming so deep into their country because they had expected a surgical strike on camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir near the Line of Control, said the sources who are close to the government.
Indian soldiers celebrate IAF’s operation across LoC on JeM terror camps
The government has convened an all-party meeting on Tuesday evening where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will brief the leaders of opposition parties on the pre-dawn air strike operation by the Indian Air Force.
Picture of JeM facility destroyed by Indian Air Force strikes in Balakot, Pakistan
Ammunition dump blew up today in Balakot, Pakistan by IAF Mirages. The dump had more than 200 AK rifles, uncountable rounds hand grenades, explosives and detonators
At 8.25 am, ANI reported that Indian fighter jets had struck a major terrorist camp across the Line of Control.
Soon after the news became the talk of the town, Pakistan Army’s Major General Asif Gaffoor of the took to Twitter again at around 10 am, claiming that the Indian incursion was in Muzaffarabad sector within Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
A group of Mirage 2000 jets were used to drop bombs in the operation, which also included various other aircraft. Though Gokhale did not make it clear if the strike was on Balakote in Pakistan occupied Kashmir or Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, defence sources said it was the latter. Balakot is about 80 km from the Line of Control and near Abbotabad where Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in hiding by covert US forces.
The operation, described as a non-military, preemptive strike, was welcomed by the entire political spectrum and military experts who had been advocating retribution after the February 14 suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama claimed by JeM.
The jets dropped 1000 Kg bombs on terror camps across the LoC, completely destroying them, IAF sources said to ANI. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) control rooms were also destroyed in the strikes.
Addressing the media, Gokhale said the facility at Balakot, located in a thick forest on a hilltop far away from civilian presence, was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar, alias Ustad Ghouri, the brother-in-law of JeM chief Masood Azhar. The statement did not say if Yousuf Azhar was among those killed.
All the opposition parties have come together and hailed the Indian Air Force for their bravery. Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee praised the armed forces for the strike.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India has committed ‘aggression’ by violating the LoC and Islamabad has ‘right to respond’. Qureshi said that clouds of danger are hovering over Pakistan and that his country should not be worried over India’s operation.
The Indian Air Force last carried out such major strike during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, but the first since India and Pakistan have become a nuclear power.
As of now, after the air strike, the Indian Air Force has put on high alert all air defence systems along the India-Pakistan border and the Line of Control.
With PTI Inputs.
