Operation Sindoor: India Strikes Terrorist Outfits, Infrastructure In Pakistan

Photo: Reuters via ANI

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI — In a decisive military move,  Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 6, targeting terrorist infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The operation was a direct response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians. The Pahalgam attack is widely seen as the most brutal assault in over two decades, marked by point-blank executions in front of family members.

During a joint press briefing held in New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh provided details of the high-precision strikes. Wing Commander Singh confirmed that nine terror sites were targeted and destroyed with surgical accuracy, ensuring no collateral damage to civilian infrastructure or populations.

Colonel Qureshi presented drone and satellite footage of the destruction of key terror camps, including those at Muridke—infamous for housing training centers linked to David Headley and Ajmal Kasab, perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Other sites targeted included the Sarjal camp in Sialkot, Markaz Ahle Hadith, Barnala, Markaz Abbas, Kotli, and Mehmoona Joya camp, also in Sialkot. These facilities were associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), both designated terrorist organizations.

Foreign Secretary Misri described the Pahalgam attack as “barbaric,” noting the psychological trauma inflicted on victims’ families. He emphasized that the intent behind the attack was to derail the fragile return to normalcy in the Kashmir Valley. Misri also briefed representatives of 13 foreign missions in New Delhi, underlining India’s strategic rationale and preemptive intent behind the strikes.

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lauded the operation’s execution, noting that “the targets were destroyed with exactness according to a well-planned strategy,” and reiterated India’s commitment to avoiding civilian casualties.

The strikes are significant not only for their scale but also for the inclusion of targets in Punjab province, Pakistan’s most populous region, marking the first such strike since the full-scale Indo-Pak war more than 50 years ago.

Pakistan, for its part, condemned the operation, claiming 26 civilian deaths and claiming that none of the six sites targeted were militant camps. Islamabad accused New Delhi of “igniting an inferno in the region.”

But JeM acknowledged that 10 relatives of its leader Masood Azhar were killed, though Azhar’s own fate remains unknown.

According to military spokespersons, the camps struck served as recruitment hubs, training grounds, and launchpads for cross-border terrorism, with weapons stockpiles and indoctrination facilities actively operational.

Operation Sindoor underscores India’s evolving counter-terror doctrine, combining strategic restraint with swift, targeted response, an official said. (with ANI and Reuters inputs)