In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, the Indian military action against Pakistan in the overnight hours of May 6-7, Indian authorities are saying that they hit terrorist targets and only terrorist targets inside Pakistan. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Indian counter-terrorism officials said the strikes were based on intelligence indicating that the nine locations targeted were actively supporting terrorist operations in India. The Hindustan Times account includes profiles of each of the nine locations which are described as “epicenters of radicalization and training in intelligence and arms handling.”
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen, among others, all identified by Indian officials as anti-India terror outfits, have been receiving covert aid from the Pakistan Army and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, according to the Hindustan Times account. This support includes systematically coordinated financial, logistical, doctrinal, and military assistance, as well as direct combat training, officials added. Pakistani military officers regularly visit and supervise sessions at training camps operated by these groups, the Hindustan Times report continued, which have been rebranded as The Resistance Front (TRF), People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), Kashmir Tigers (KT), etc., to evade global scrutiny and portray their terrorism as an indigenous resistance movement.
Pakistani authorities claim the exact contrary: that the strikes were all against civilians and a mosque, and that the Pakistani military shot down five Indian war planes. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also claimed that a number of Indian border posts along the Line of Control were destroyed by Pakistani return fire. Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said this morning that 26 civilians had been killed and 46 were injured.
