New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first address to the nation since the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, applauded the country’s armed forces and their action, saying they have ensured that every terrorist now “knows the price of removing the Sindoor of women”. Speaking on Day 3 of the ceasefire after four days of hostilities from Pakistan, PM Modi said such Operation Sindoor is the new normal in India’s battle against terror. This, he added, would be the course of action the country will follow, considering any future terror attack on Indian soil “an act of war”. “Nuclear blackmail won’t work,” he added.
Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 in retaliation to the horrific terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam in which 26 people were shot dead after religious profiling by terrorists. A proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack, and investigation revealed the presence of three Pakistani terrorists in the group of five that had opened fire on the tourists.
Operation Sindoor, the Prime Minister said this evening, is an “unwavering pledge for justice”. “I dedicate Operation Sindoor to the mothers, sisters and daughters of this nation… Operation Sindoor is not just a name, it is a reflection of people’s sentiments,” PM Modi said.
“Terrorists dared to wipe the Sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters. That’s why India destroyed the very headquarters of terror. India has killed more than 100 terrorists who roamed freely in Pakistan, turned their headquarters into rubble,” PM Modi said.
He also slammed Pakistan for its support to terror — roots of terror” — and said they have now been taught a lesson as well.
“When our missiles and drones destroyed terror sites in Pakistan, not only their buildings but their spirit was also demolished… India attacked the heart of Pakistan. We destroyed their air bases, Pakistan was stunned by our actions… and had to beg for peace,” he added.
Defining what he called the “new normal”, PM Modi said India will not differentiate between terrorists and their patrons. By the same token, there will be no trade with Pakistan, and no talks unless it be on terror of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said. “Blood and water cannot flow together,” he said, in a pointed reference to the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. “Operation Sindoor is now India’s new policy against terrorism, a new line has been drawn,” he added.
Read: Future Talks With Pakistan Only On PoK, Terror: PM Modi
“The world has seen how Pak army officers attended the funeral of terrorists, a big evidence of state-sponsored terrorism,” PM Modi said, underscoring that every inch of land in which terror is encouraged by Pakistan is within the reach of our Armed Forces.
Twenty-six people were killed in the terror attack of April 22. Twenty-four of them Indian tourists, one tourist from Nepal and a local man who was working as a pony handler. All were shot in cold blood. The pony handler was killed after he tried to save the life of a tourist.
On May 7, India conducted targeted attacks on terror bases at four locations in Pakistan and five in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, destroying not just the headquarters of Lashkar-e Taiba and Jaish-e Mohammed, but also killing several of India’s Most Wanted terrorists.
Among the 100-odd terrorists killed, were men involved in the 2019 Pulwama attack and the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines flight IC 814.
At least five key operatives of Lashkar and Jaish were killed — Mudassar Khadian Khas and Khalid alias Abu Akasha of Lashkar-e Taiba, Mohammed Yusuf Azhar, Hafiz Mohammed Jaleel, and Mohammad Hassan Khan of Jaish-e Mohammad. Mohammed Yusuf Azhar was Jaish founder Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law, and a wanted accused in the 1999 IC-814 hijacking case.
As Pakistan responded with a wave of drone and missile attack along the border in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Punjab, India responded with a precise, calibrated operation that aimed at Pakistan’s military installations, air bases, targets near Karachi, a radar site in Lahore and another close to Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
