New Delhi: With India carrying out precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri briefed envoys and representatives of 13 UN Security Council member countries and conveyed that New Delhi’s response to April 22 Pahalgam terror attack has been ” targeted, measured and non-escalatory,” sources said.
They said that Foreign Secretary conveyed that April 22 terror attack, in which 26 people were killed, was “escalation for us”.
Sources said Misri pointed out that The Resistance Front (TRF), a front for LeT, had claimed responsibility for the terror attack and then backed out after it realised that it has to be shield.
Sources said he conveyed that Pakistan tried very hard to bring out a UNSC statement and it is clear that there is some design to this.
Misri conveyed that India’s response has been “targeted, measured and non-escalatory” and the precision strikes have been carried out only on terrorist infrastructure.
Pakistan, however, has been focusing on hitting civilian infrastructure in the Poonch area. Misri said Pahalgam was a barbaric terror attack and everyone saw what it was. He said India has responded to a terror attack and has targeted terrorist infrastructure.
He is learnt to have said that if Pakistan responds then India will also respond and that shelling is taking place along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said there were queries about possible reaction from Pakistan and the Foreign Secretary conveyed that India has responded to a terrorist attack.
He said India has not targeted any military installation and hit nine sites belonging to terrorists outfits. He is learnt to have said that if Pakistan hits at civilian infrastructure then India will respond.
Sources said Misri conveyed that India has credible evidence that the nine sites targeted by it are places where terrorists used to be trained and were also used as launchpads. They said Misri stated that it is too early to comment on casualties.
The terror infrastructure is housed in complex in which there are madrassas, mosques, playgrounds, dormitories and training areas. India has targeted these complexes which have been a training ground for terrorists, he is leant to have said.
Misri said that India’s mission in the US is also reaching out to all the UNSC members.
Earlier in the day, at a joint briefing on Operation Sindoor in which nine terrorist camps were targeted with precision strikes, Foreign Secretay Vikram Misri said the terror attack in Pahalgam was marked with extreme barbarity, with the victims mostly killed with head shots at close range and in front of their family.
“The family members were deliberately traumatised through the manner of killing, accompanied by the exhortation that they should take back the message. The attack was clearly driven by the objective of undermining normalcy returning to Kashmir,” he said.
Misri said that Indian intelligence agencies had been monitoring terrorist activities and raised concerns regarding more terrorist attacks in India.
“Our intelligence indicated that further attacks against India are impending. Thus, compulsion, both to deter and prevent and hence earlier this morning, India exercised its right to respond to deter such more cross-border terrorism… Our actions were measured and non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible. They focused on dismantling terrorists’ infrastructure,” he said.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh informed that a total of nine terror sites were targeted and successfully destroyed. She asserted that the locations were selected so that there was no damage to civilians and their infrastructures.
“Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to deliver justice to the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and their families. Nine terrorist camps were targeted and successfully destroyed… The locations were so selected to avoid damage to civilian infrastructures and loss of any civilian lives, she said.
Col Sofiya Qureshi showed some videos of the strikes destroying terror camps.
The Indian Armed Forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ early Wednesday.
Twenty-six people were killed in the Pahalgam terror attack. The government had said that the perpetrators will face severe punishment. (ANI)
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