New Delhi: Government of India on Tuesday owned the aerial strike beyond Line of Control and said that they carried out pre emptive strike following intelligence input that JeM was planning another attack in India.
“Credible intelligence was received that Jaish-e-Mohammed was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country & fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told media.
He said that a pre-emptive strike became important and India struck the biggest camp of JeM in Balakot.
“This facility in Balakot was headed by Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghauri, brother in law of JeM Chief Masood Azhar…The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualty. It’s located in deep forest on a hilltop,” he said.
“India is firmly & resolutely committed to taking all measures to fight the menace of terrorism. This non-military pre-emptive action was targeted specifically at JeM camp. The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualties,” Gokhale said.
“In an intelligence lead operation in the early hours today, India struck the biggest training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commander & Jihadis were eliminated,” he said.
