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New Delhi: India’s military strikes early on Saturday were a response to the escalatory and provocative actions of Pakistan, which is engaged in a “wanton campaign” of targeting civilians in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said.
Misri debunked Pakistan’s claims about destroying or damaging military installations, critical infrastructure, and power and cyber systems in counter strikes during a briefing on Operation Sindoor as hostilities sharply escalated between the two sides with the use of missiles, combat jets, armed UAVs and long-range weapons.
Pakistan’s activities over the past three days were “escalatory and provocative in nature”, and India has “defended and reacted in a responsible and measured fashion to these provocations and these escalations”, Misri said while addressing the briefing alongside Col Sofiya Qureshi of the army and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the air force.
The two women officers offered a detailed account of India’s strikes on eight military sites in Pakistan, including airbases, command and control centres and radar sites, which were conducted in retaliation for Pakistan’s attacks on 26 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Gujarat.
Misri said Pakistan is continuing its “execrable and wanton campaign of targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure”, especially in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, and making a “consistent attempt to sow discord between communities in India”.
The shelling of Rajouri town by Pakistani forces on Saturday morning killed the additional district development commissioner, Raj Kumar Thapa, adding to civilian casualties and damage in the region. There was also injuries to civilians and damage to property in Ferozepur and Jalandhar in Punjab state.
Rubbishing Pakistan’s claims about attacking and destroying the air force stations at Sirsa in Haryana and at Surat in Gujarat, an S-400 air defence base at Adampur in Punjab, and other critical infrastructure and power and cyber systems, Misri said people shouldn’t be misled by “this tissue of lies that is being peddled by the Pakistani state”.
Misri also described as “ludicrous” claims made by Pakistan’s chief military spokesman, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, about India “firing missiles towards Shri Amritsar Sahib” and at Afghanistan. “These lame attempts to divide India are doomed to failure,” he said.
“We have also seen in some of the remarks that have been shown on television that the Pakistani Army spokesman seems to take great joy at the fact that the Indian public should criticise the government of India with regard to various issues,” he said. “It may be a surprise to Pakistan to see citizens criticising their own government. That is the hallmark of an open and functioning democracy. Pakistan’s unfamiliarity with that, again, should not be surprising.”
Referring to Chaudhry’s claim that Indian missiles had hit Afghanistan, Misri said the Afghan people “don’t need to be reminded about which country...has on multiple occasions, in just the last one and a half years, targeted civilian populations and civilian infrastructure in Afghanistan”.
Saturday’s strikes marked the highest level of escalation over four days of armed confrontation between India and Pakistan, with tensions soaring since New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 civilians. The Indian leadership has made it clear that there will be firm response to any escalatory action by Pakistan.
