Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday issued a stern warning to Pakistan against harbouring terrorists on its soil, adding that the neighbouring nation needs to decide whether it wants to be a "part of geography or become history". His remarks came days after India marked the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, which was launched in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that had claimed 26 lives.
The Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) was interacting with a gathering during a session hosted by 'Uniform Unveiled' at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi. General Dwivedi was asked how would the Indian Army respond if circumstances that led to Operation Sindoor last year comes up again.
"If you have heard me earlier, what I have said... that Pakistan, if it continues to harbour terrorists and operate against India, then they have to decide whether they want to be part of geography or history or not," the Army chief was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
1 year of Operation Sindoor
Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 last year in retaliation of the Pahalgam terror attack. As part of it, the Indian Armed Forces conducted precision strikes on multiple terror infrastructure of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pakistan later tried to target India's military and civilian infrastructures, leading to counter-offensives by Indian Armed Forces, which were also a part of Operation Sindoor. The hostilities lasted for nearly 88 hours, before Pakistan's DGMO called his Indian counterpart, requesting for a ceasefire.
Although the four-day military conflict ended on May 10, the Indian leadership has repeatedly stated that Operation Sindoor has only been paused and warned Pakistan against any misadventure. It also said that the Indian military had managed to dominate "the escalation matrix on all four days" of the conflict.
"No sanctuary across the Line of Control is safe. We will hit everything. We will go after everything and that has been made clear in the new normal that the prime minister said last year. But the conditions, the timing and the method will be ours," said Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (strategy), at a press conference on May 7.
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