Key Points

Lt Gen Ghai, who was speaking on Operation Sindoor at the United Nations Troop Contributing Countries' (UNTCC) Chiefs' Conclave, said the final selection of targets was carried out from a large number of targets that we scrutinised.

"On April 22, terror came calling (in Pahalgam). Sponsored terrorists from across the LoC killed 26 innocent tourists, singled them out, identified them, asked for the community that they came from and shot them in cold blood in front of their families and loved ones. There were immediate claimers; this was 'glory'. However, when the Kashmir Resistance Front initially claimed the attack, they realised that matters had possibly gone beyond their control, and they immediately withdrew... Everybody knew that a response was inevitable. But we took our time; the Chief of Army Staff alluded to this in some of his exchanges with the media, that there was complete flexibility for the armed forces to carry out and prosecute the actions that followed," Lt Gen Ghai said.

"Between April 22nd and the night of May 6-7, the actions were evolving and unfolding... We were prioritising our targets. We carried out certain precautionary deployments on our borders to make sure that the enemy was deterred. There were a lot of inter-service government departments and agencies that were coordinating amongst themselves. The final selection of targets was carried out from a large number of targets that we scrutinised. While all this was happening, there was a very harmonised and proactive information warfare campaign that was also unfolding," he added.

He said that over 15,000 civilians have been killed due to Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

"It's in the late 80s that this problem started in Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, we've had more than 28,000 terror incidents. Since the 90s, we've had more than 100,000 people from the minorities who have been compelled to move out of Jammu and Kashmir, a migration of more than 60,000 families... 15,000 innocent civilians and more than 3000 security personnel have been killed, and it's very clear where this is coming from," he said.

Lt Gen Ghai also referred to India's earlier response to terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir.

"It is not as if Operation Sindoor happened overnight. If you take your mind back to the attack on our parliament back in 2001, we were compelled to carry out a mobilisation on our borders. We remained there for almost a year. Yet, a wiser sense prevailed, and we didn't take matters forward. In 2016, some of our security personnel were barbarically ambushed, some of their tents were set on fire, and we then resorted to an action that was yet in the vicinity of the LoC. In 2019, we carried out a precision strike across the LoC and restricted it to that. But this time, it was the intensity and the magnitude of the events that took place," he added.

India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in May this year in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The Indian Armed Forces effectively repulsed the subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases.

Pakistan DGMO had called his Indian counterpart and the two countries agreed for cessation of hostilities.

- ANI