India carried out an air strike deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday morning (Feb 26, 2019), its first since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war.
As many as 12 Indian Air Force (IAF) Mirage fighter jets destroyed the main base of Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistani Islamist group active in Jammu & Kashmir, by striking it with 1,000 kilogram (2,000 pound) “precision” bombs. The base was located in a wooded area a short distance from Balakot in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, some 60 kilometres from the Line of Control (LoC).
“In this operation,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told a media conference Tuesday, “a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated.”
The government has not elaborated. But reports are speaking of between 200 and 300 dead.
The pre-dawn air strike was India’s response to the suicide bombing that killed 40 soldiers of the CRPF – a para military force. Jaish-e- Muhammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack and even released a video.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior government and military officials had repeatedly vowed Pakistan would be punished militarily for Pulwama attack.
Soon after the JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama bombing, Prime Minister Modi declared Pakistan responsible and said India’s military had a “free hand” in exacting retribution.
The Indian government has since announced a slew of retaliatory measures. These include cancelling Pakistan’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status and vowing to maximize India’s “rights” under the Indus Valley Water Treaty.
Foreign Secretary Gokhale said the Balakot strike was a “non-military pre-emptive action,” exclusively targeting the JeM, because “credible intelligence” showed the Islamist group was on the verge of launching another terrorist attack on India.
Islamabad has disputed India’s account but conceded that the raid did indeed take place. A statement issued after a meeting of Pakistan’s National Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, said the Indian fighter jets were chased off by Pakistani warplanes and their precision bombs fell in forested areas, with one injured civilian the lone casualty.
“Pakistan,” declared army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, “will retaliate on diplomatic, political and military fronts to India’s action.”
What are the objectives of India?
Primarily it is to intensify India’s escalating campaign of diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Pakistan. And to signal that India is determined to change the “rules of the game” with Pakistan, so as to force it to demonstratively cease its terrorism export.
Significantly, less than 24 hours after the Pulwama attack US National Security Adviser John Bolton declared that Washington supports “India’s right to self-defence against cross-border terrorism.”
-by Yamaaraar