New Delhi: Twelve days after the dastardly Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist attack in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF Jawans were martyred, the Indian Air Force, in a pre-dawn operation, struck and destroyed terrorist camps across the Line of Control on Tuesday.
The Indian Air Force destroyed three Jaish terror launchpads at Balakot, Chakoti and Muzaffarabad across the Line of Control in Pakistan, India’s Foreign Secretary on Monday confirmed that one of the terror facilities in Balakot, which was struck down by IAF’s Mirage 2000, was headed by Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghouri.
In a press briefing, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said,
“In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of today, 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 Yusuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar , Chief of JeM.”
He further said, “India is firmly&resolutely committed to taking all measures to fight the menace of terrorism.This non-military pre-emptive action was targeted specifically at JeM camp. The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualties.”
