New Delhi:
India has rubbished Pakistani claims that it has targeted a dam — the Neelum Jhelum project — during “Operation Sindoor”, the retaliatory strikes against terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Speaking to the media this evening, foreign secretary Vikram MIsri questioned if it was a “pretext” to target similar infrastructure in India.
Calling Pakistan’s claims “absolute and complete fabrication”, he said India has only targeted terror infrastructure.
“If this kind of a claim is a pretext of targeting Indian infrastructure of a similar nature, Pakistan will be responsible for the consequences that will follow,” he said.
Operation Sindoor, the government and army has repeatedly underscored, was non-escalatory, precise, controlled and measured.
But a day later, Pakistan hit back with an attempt to target military installations in 15 cities, including Srinagar, Pathankot, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh that got foiled by the Indian armed forces. The armed forces had responded by targeting and neutralising Pakistani Air Defence Radars and systems in several locations, including Lahore.
Indian forces’ response, the government said, was “in the same domain (and) with the same intensity” as the attacks launched by Pakistan. “The Indian Armed Forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation, provided it is respected by the Pakistani military,” the government said in a communique.
At an all-party meeting earlier today, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh said while India does not want to escalate the situation at this point, it will hit back if Pakistan strikes. Operation Sindoor is an “ongoing operation”, he said.
India carried out the strikes o terror hubs of Jaish-e Mohammad and lashkar-e Taiba across 9 spots in Pakistan and PoK under Operation Sindoor — the retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 25 tourists and Kashmiri ponywalla were killed.
Eyewitnesses said the tourists were shot in cold blood after religious profiling.
