India Neutralises Pak Drones And Missiles Targeting 15 Cities, Destroys Air Defence System
Attempted military action against India a day after Indian armed forces' precision strikes at four terrorist camps in Pak and five in Pak-occupied Kashmir, or PoK.
New Delhi:
Pakistani attempts at heightening tensions with India last night and this morning by targeting military bases in 15 northern and western cities of the country – Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Gujarat – have been foiled, the government declared Thursday.
The government asserted Indian troops reacted by targeting and disabling Pakistani Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of places, including Lahore, against Pak attempts to target military establishments in Srinagar, Pathankot, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, and other places.
Indian troops’ reaction, the government emphasized this afternoon, was “in the same domain (and) with the same intensity” as the attacks by Pakistan. Click here for Operation Sindoor Live Updates
Pak forces employed drones and missiles which were neutralised by India’s air defence capabilities.
Sources informed news agency ANI HARPY drones were deployed by India to destroy Pak air defences, and India thereafter employed the Russian-made S-400 defence system to down incoming missiles targeting its cities.
Wreckage of the destroyed drones and missiles is being gathered, the government stated, and will contribute to the mass of evidence for India’s claims that Pakistan, or the Pak deep state, sponsors cross-border terrorism against India, either by fiscal funding or military training.
Tryon military action against India follows one day after Indian military forces launched precision strikes against four terror camps in Pak and five in Pak-occupied Kashmir, or PoK.
Operation sindoor,the codename of the strikes, lasted for 25 minutes, starting Wednesday morning at 1.05 am and featuring a salvo of 24 projectiles – from HAMMER smart bombs to SCALP missiles – that hit terrorist outfits’ HQs and training centers.
More than 100 terrorists were eliminated in the strikes, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced this afternoon.
Op Sindoor was retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Four terrorists belonging to The Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, gunned down 26 individuals, most of them civilians, at the Baisaran Valley, a tourist destination less than 70 km from J&K capital Srinagar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised revenge against the perpetrators.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon the Army and Air Force stated Sindoor targets had been selected on the basis of credible intelligence, and that its operation was “focused, measured, and non-escalatory”.
The armed forces also emphasized Pak military installations were not targeted.
The locations targeted were Muridke in Pak’s Punjab province, which accommodated Lashkar’s HQ and training camp. Another terrorist organization – Jaish-e-Mohammed, which participated in the 2019 Pulwama attack that claimed 40 Indian troops – had its HQ and training camp destroyed as well.
Pakistan too was warned then; that any action against Indian military targets will invite more. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reissued that warning this morning at an all-party meeting, informing opposition leaders Operation Sindoor is “on-going” in terms of Pak’s activities.
The government has also noted, meanwhile, that Pakistan has consistently raised the intensity of cross-border firing and shelling, starting within 24 hours of the Pahalgam attack.
Mortars and heavy caliber shell fire is also being inflicted from across the LoC in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar, and Rajouri sectors, the government asserted.
Up till now 16 civilians have died, of them three women and five children.
