In a first India strikes terror camps inside Pakistani territory

India conducted airstrikes on terrorist camps inside Pakistan in the early hours of Tuesday, 26^th February. News agency ANI quoted Indian Air Force (IAF) sources as saying “At 0330 hours on 26th February, a group of Mirage 2000 Indian Fighter jets struck a major terrorist camp across the LoC and completely destroyed it. 1000 Kg bombs were dropped on terror camps across the LoC,”

The strikes come in the aftermath of the 14 February suicide terror attack on India’s CRPF para-military forces by a young Kashmiri terrorist, belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist group, which has been active in Pakistan for the last two decades, and is led by Masood Azhar, with its headquarters in Bahawalpur. Forty CRPF personnel died in the attack.

Jaish-e-Mohammad is proscribed by the UN, and has been responsible of a series of terrorist attacks including on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 and the Pathankot airbase in January 2016.

The Indian Foreign Secretary Mr. Vijay Gokhale announced in New Delhi that in an intelligence led operation in the early hours of Tuesday, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, Chief of JeM.

This is the first time since the 1971 India Pakistan war that Indian Air Force has crossed over into Pakistani territory to conduct strikes.

The foreign secretary said that “Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose. In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary.” He further said that information regarding the location of training camps in Pakistan and PoJK has been provided to Pakistan from time to time. Pakistan, however, denies their existence. “The existence of such massive training facilities capable of training hundreds of jihadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of Pakistan authorities.”

India has been repeatedly urging Pakistan to take action against the JeM to prevent jihadis from being trained and armed inside Pakistan. Pakistan has taken no concrete actions to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil.

The Pakistani military confirmed that Indian warplanes had violated the Line of Control (LoC), which is the de facto border separating the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan administered Kashmir, which India calls Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), intruded from Muzaffarabad sector and dropped a ‘payload’.

Spokesperson Pakistan Armed Forces Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted “Indian Air Force violated Line of Control. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back.”

Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, convened a special meeting at Prime Minister Khans’s office, which was attended by major cabinet ministers, chairman of joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior officials. It said Pakistan “shall respond at the time and place of its choosing”.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that “better sense” should prevail in India and that his country “holds the right to proper response” to what he called a “grave aggression”.

The air raids were carried out by the Indian Air Force against terror camps beyond the LoC and into Pakistani territory at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Mirage 2000 jets were used to strike at the terror camp. Balakote is known to house the Jaish-e-Mohamed’s biggest terror camp.

While Indian media reports claimed that around 300 terrorists, including suicide fidayeens, had been eliminated in the strike, Pakistan said that Indians had missed the target. Reuters quoted local villagers as saying the strikes had claimed only one casualty.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf official handle announced that a special session of Parliament will be convened to ‘take the nation on board’.

Reports said the India’s National Security Advisor Mr. Ajit Doval had discussed the ‘non-military preemptive’ strikes with the US National Security Advisor Mr. John Bolton during their telephone call on the evening of 15^th February. The Press Trust of India reporting from Washington had then quoted Bolton as saying “I told Ajit Doval today that we support India’s right to self-defence. I have spoken to him twice, including this morning… and expressed the US’ condolences over the terrorist attack,”
On 21^st February the UN Security Council has strongly condemned the “heinous and cowardly” Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and underlined the need to hold perpetrators of these “reprehensible acts” of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. The  statement was highly significant as China, a permanent member of the Council, has in the past repeatedly blocked India’s bids in the Security Council Sanctions Committee to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

Following the airstrikes the Press Trust of India quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang as saying in Beijing “I want to say that India and Pakistan are both important countries in South Asia. A sound relationship and cooperation between the two serves the interests of both the countries and peace and stability in South Asia,” he said.

On Wednesday 27^th February Indian Minister of External Affairs Ms. Sushma Swaraj will be meeting with her Chinese and Russian counterparts for the Russia-India-China (RIC) ministerial meeting in Wuzhen, China. Terrorism and the Pulwama terror attack is expected to top the discussions.

Indian officials termed the strikes as “non-military preemptive action” which was specifically targeted at the JeM camp, in order to “avoid civilian casualties”. The facility is located in thick forest on a hilltop far away from any civilian presence.

India also called on the Government of Pakistan to honor its commitment of January 2004 to not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India. “We expect that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment and takes follow up actions to dismantle all JeM and other camps and hold the terrorists accountable for the actions.”

Aditi Bhaduri

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