The Indian military launched multiple missile attacks targeting terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir early on May 7, in an attack called Operation Sindoor. The Pakistani military considered it as an Indian attack on Pakistan and retaliated.
The missiles were India’s response to the deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Pahalgam, during which 26 Hindu men were killed. An armed group called The Resistance Front (TRF), which demands independence for Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. India claims that the TRF is an offshoot of Pakistan-based armed group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). As usual, Islamabad denied its involvement in the Pahalgam attack and asked for a neutral investigation into the incident.
However, since the attack, India has suspended its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty that Pakistan relies on for its water supply. Pakistan has responded by threatening to suspend its participation in the Simla Agreement, a pact signed in 1972 following the Indo-Pakistan War. Both countries have also scaled back their diplomatic ties, and each has expelled the other’s citizens.
India claimed it hit “terrorist infrastructure”, targeting organisations including the LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), an armed group based in Pakistan which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in February 2019, which killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri insisted that the missile strikes “focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India”. Joining Misri in the briefing, Indian military officials Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh detailed the operation. Five of the nine sites that India hit, they said, were in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The remaining four were in Punjab – in Bahawalpur, Muridke, Shakar Garh and a village near Sialkot. During the briefing, the Indian military showed a map marking out what it claimed were 21 “terrorist camps” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan’s ISPR described the Indian strikes as an “unprovoked attack, targeting innocent people”. It indicated that India had launched a total of 24 strikes across six locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It claimed mosques and residential areas were targeted, killing and injuring civilians.
The Indian missile strikes represent the most extensive attacks on Pakistani soil outside the four wars that the nuclear-armed neighbours have fought. They also mark the first time since the war of 1971 that India has attacked Punjab, Pakistan’s most populated province and historical and economic hub.
India hit a LeT training centre, Sawai Nala camp in Muzaffarabad, 30km (19 miles) away from the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that separates India and Pakistan in Kashmir. India claimed that those responsible for multiple attacks, including the April 22 Pahalgam killings, were trained at this camp. India also hit a LeT base, Gulpur camp, about 30km (19 miles) away from the LoC. The Indian army added that it also struck what it called the Abbas camp in Kotli, 13km (8 miles) away from the LoC, where Qureshi said up to 15 “terrorists” could be trained at a time.
India has also hit Mehmoona Joya, which was a facility of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM), a rebel group based in Indian-administered Kashmir. The HuM was founded by separatist leader Muhammad Ahsan Dar in September 1989, with a pro-Pakistan ideology, calling for India to quit the Kashmir valley. India also struck the Barnala camp in Bhimber, about 9km (5.6 miles) away from the LoC. India had struck the Sarjal camp in Sialkot. This was the training centre for those responsible for the killing of four police officers in March this year in Kashmir.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on May 10 confirmed that India had agreed to a ceasefire with Pakistan after the latter reached out. “The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan called the DGMO of India at 3.30 PM this afternoon. It was agreed between them that both sides would cease all firing and military action on land, in the air, and at sea with effect from 5 PM.” Shortly before that, US President Donald Trump stated that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after a fourth day of strikes and counter-strikes against each other’s military installations. The Directors General of Military Operations spoke again on May 12. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed that both countries had agreed to a ceasefire “with immediate effect”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Over the past 48 hours, Vice President Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik.” Interestingly, US Vice President J.D. Vance, who just days ago claimed the conflict between India and Pakistan was “none of our business,” has also shared President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed countries.
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to deescalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” Vance told on May 8.
India carried out major counterterror operations under “Operation Sindoor”, targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, which killed 26 people and was sponsored by Pakistan. India has made it clear that its war against terrorism is a continued process and the India will continue to destroy the terror camps anytime, anywhere. No one welcomes War. Although India is capable enough to resolve its problems through diplomatic channels, by launching operation Sindoor, India has proved its high-class preparedness to combat any eventuality and use of modern warfare. We are capable to destroy the cross-border terrorism. Now it is clear –India will continue to exist and grow further; encountering a neighbour terror state Pakistan.
