Deepak Dwivedi
NEW DELHI: After the 2016 Uri surgical strikes, 2019 Balakot airstrikes and other past operations that were limited in scope, Operation Sindoor launched by the Indian armed forces deep inside Pakistan to demolish its terror infrastructure was the most comprehensive, technologically robust and meticulously orchestrated.
Provoked by the Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists targeting innocent civilians, the operation launched on the intervening night of May 6-7 was an emphatic statement that India will not flinch from exercising its right to self-defence against persistent deployment of terrorism as a tool of state policy by Pakistan.
Careful selection
As India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, appropriately flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh amplified, nine terrorist camps – four in Pakistan and five in Pakoccupied Kashmir – were destroyed. The targets included operational headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-eMohammed. Bahawalpur in Pak Punjab is home to Jaish and its leader Masood Azhar and Muridke is linked to Lashkar and its founder Hafiz Saeed.
These groups have been linked to some of the deadliest terror attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the recent massacre in Pahalgam. In their presentation, Colonel Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh said these nine locations were carefully selected based on “credible intelligence inputs”. Each strike was carried out with “due diligence” and precision, using technologically advanced military assets to avoid civilian casualties. No Pakistan military facility was hit, it was stressed.
Operation Sindoor represented a significant stage in the evolution in India’s strategic response. Its sheer scale of sent a strong message to terrorist networks and their handlers in Pakistan’s military establishment. It was the most extensive single-day precision operation India has ever executed.
India stands united
Indian intelligence combined satellite imagery, human sources, and intercepted communications to identify specific targets and hit them with telling effect, using air, naval, and land-based assets.
As a rattled Islamabad dubbed the Indian strikes as “an act of war” and vowed retaliation, India has lost no time in beefing up self-defence. Armed forces on India-Pakistan border are ready to repulse any Pak misadventure. Civil defence drills are being undertaken in every part of the country and the nation stands united and resolute behind the Government of India.
International opinion has endorsed India’s doctrine of zero-tolerance against terrorism while calling for deescalation. Even Beijing, while “regretting” current developments, has told Pakistan to avoid taking actions that further complicate the situation. Defence experts feel that an internationally isolated Pakistan has now run out of viable options. India has managed to send a massage Pakistan can ignore at its peril. It must desist or face consequences.
