New Delhi:
‘Operation Sindoor’, India’s calibrated military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, included a strike on Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab, which is home to the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and is known as the “terror nursery” of Pakistan.
The Hafiz Saeed-led terror outfit is believed to be behind the April 22 attack in Baisaran near Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in which 26 people, most of whom were tourists, were killed.
The headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Muridke is spread over approximately 200 acres and houses a terror training camp as well as other infrastructure.
Muridke is a major commercial hub and is about 40 km from Lahore.
India’s strikes also targeted Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The choice of Bahawalpur is also significant because it serves as the base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the terror group whose chief, Masood Azhar, is the mastermind behind the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
Sources have said that Kotli and Bahawalpur were also among possible targets that the Indian Armed Forces had in mind while responding to the Pulwama terror attack in 2019, in which terror bases in Balakot were struck.
In a statement, the defence ministry said Wednesday’s strikes, which took place at 1.44 am, were a “precise and restrained response” to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack and stressed that no Pakistani military facilities were hit, reflecting India’s “calibrated and non-escalatory approach”.
Emphasising the retaliatory nature of the strikes, the ministry said, “This operation underscores India’s resolve to hold perpetrators accountable while avoiding unnecessary provocation.”
India has also said that it expected Pakistan to act against terrorists after the Pahalgam attacks but it “indulged in denial” instead.
All three branches of the Indian Armed Forces, the Army, Air Force and Navy, were involved in the precision strike – the first such joint operation since 1971.
Pakistan has said it retains the “right to respond” and has violated the ceasefire in several locations. “Pakistan again violates the Ceasefire Agreement by firing artillery in Bhimber Gali in the Poonch-Rajouri area. Indian Army is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner,” the Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI) posted on X.
