'Operation Sindoor': IC-814 hijackers, Pulwama plotters among over 100 terrorists killed in precision strikes, says DGMO Ghai in joint briefing

NEW DELHI: In a joint press briefing on Sunday, senior defence officials confirmed that over 100 terrorists were eliminated in India's ongoing counterterror action, codenamed 'Operation Sindoor', launched in the early hours of May 7 in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians on April 22.Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai said that Indian armed forces carried out precision strikes on nine terror launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. “Those strikes across those nine terror hubs left more than 100 terrorists killed, including high value targets such as Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf and Mudasir Ahmed that were involved in the hijack of IC814 and the Pulwama blast,” he said.Among the targets were high-profile sites such as Jaish-e-Mohammed’s headquarters in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s camp in Muridke. Officials confirmed that these locations had long served as breeding grounds for militants responsible for major attacks on Indian soil.DGMO Ghai mentioned that 'Operation Sindoor' involved a “very diligent and microscopic scarring of the terror landscape across the borders and the identification of terror camps and training sites.” He added, “There was also a term of reference and our own binding self imposed restriction to target only terrorists and thus prevent collateral damage.”While some sites had been evacuated in anticipation of an Indian response, Ghai said nine camps were verified as active through multi-agency intelligence and were struck accordingly. "There were nine camps that you are now all familiar with which were confirmed by our various intelligence agencies to be inhabited. Some of these were in PoJK, while there were others that were located in the Punjab Province in Pakistan. Nefarious places such as Muridke, the hub center of the Lashkar-e-Taiba has over the years bred infamous characters such as Ajmal Kasab and the likes of David Headley," DGMO said.He also highlighted the integrated role of the services: “The Indian Air Force played a major part in these strikes by engaging some of these camps and the Indian Navy provided wherewithal in terms of precision munitions. The Indian Air Force had their assets up in the sky.”Ghai said Pakistan’s response after the strikes was both reckless and revealing: “The line of control was also violated soon after by Pakistan and the erratic and rattled response of our enemy was apparent from the number of civilians, inhabited villages and religious sites such as Gurudwaras that were unfortunately hit by them, leading to a sad loss of lives.”Meanwhile, the briefing came just a day after Pakistan reached out to India on Saturday, proposing a comprehensive ceasefire across land, air, and sea -- an understanding it went on to violate later that very evening.