Earlier in the day, Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighters destroyed multiple terrorist camps in Pakistan to avenge the death of soldiers in the Pulwama terror attack.
Hours after India carried out pre-dawn surgical strikes on Tuesday on terror camps across the border, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale held a press conference to provide the details of the operation carried out by the Indian Air Force, reports ANI.
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Affirming that the Indian Air Force carried out early morning surgical strikes in Pakistan Gokhale said, “In an intelligence-led operation, India struck the biggest Jaish facility in Balakot on early hours of Tuesday. India calls it non-military pre-preemptive action to counter multiple potential fidayeen attacks.”
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that they had credible intelligence that Jaish-e-Mohammed was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country and Fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose.
“A pre-emptive strike became important. India struck the biggest camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commander & Jihadis were eliminated” Vijay Gokhale confirmed the air strike inside the Pakistani territory.
Gokhale further added that the strike took place on a hilltop in a forested location far from civilian areas and the JeM camp was run by Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghauri, brother in law of JeM Chief Masood Azhar.
He further added that India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all measures to fight the menace of terrorism. This non-military pre-emptive action was targeted specifically at JeM camp and the selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualties, said Vijay Gokhale.
We had earlier reported regarding Indian Air Force conducting three air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan. The IAF jets had pounded terror camps Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Chakoti in the well-planned strike involving a fleet of IAF jets and other military jets. Nearly 200-300 casualties on the side of Pakistan have been reported.
Reportedly, 12 Mirage jets took part in the Operation and bombs weighing 1000 kgs each was dropped on terror camps across the Line of Control, destroying them utterly. The Operation occurred at 3.30 a.m. in the morning.