The Indian Armed Forces on Sunday confirmed that India lost five soldiers during Operation Sindoor which responded to the Pahalgam terror attack. India made 'focused, measured and non-escalatory' strikes on Pakistani terror camps in reply to the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam to avenge the 26 civilian lives lost on April 22.
The Indian Armed Forces hit nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, killing over 100 terrorists, some of whom were 'high-value' ones. Terror camps in Sialkot, Muridke and Bahawalpur in Pakistan were targeted, while the strikes also focused on hideouts in Muzaffarabad, Kotli and Bhimber.
"I pay my solemn homage to my five fallen colleagues and brothers from the armed forces and civilians who have tragically lost their lives in Operation Sindoor," the Indian Armed Forces said in a media briefing on Sunday, May 11.
The Armed Forces confirmed that India killed more than 100 terrorists during the 'precision' strikes across nine terror camps and that some of the killed terrorists were high-valued ones. "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 who were involved in the hijack of IC814 and the Pulwama blast.
"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. 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," DGMO Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai said.
He added that Pakistan DGMO had dialled to communicate for a ceasefire, and since India's initial aim was to target the terror camps, the Indian DGMO spoke to his Pakistani counterpart. "On May 10, in the morning, even as we were getting into a huddle to wargame the events of the previous night, I received a message on the hotline from my counterpart in Pakistan, seeking my willingness to communicate.
"Since our initial aim was to strike at terror camps and all our actions in the subsequent days were in response to the intrusions and violations by the Pakistan Air Force and its army, it was decided that I would indeed speak with my counterpart. My communication with the Pakistan DGMO was conducted at 1535 hours yesterday and resulted in cessation of cross border firing and air intrusions by either side with effect from 1700 hours on May 10," he said.
