NEW DELHI: In a pre-dawn strike, combat jets of
Indian Air Force bombed terror camps on Tuesday at multiple locations across the Line of Control in the Pakistani side, 12 days after Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group carried out the dastardly
Pulwama attack in Kashmir, government sources said.
They said the IAF's Mirage 2000 fighter jets pounded the terror camps in Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Chakoti in the well-planned strike destroying Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camps.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the operation.
Hours later, Prime Minister Modi chaired a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security which was attended by finance minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, home minister Rajnath Singh and Sitharaman.
The sources said significant damage has been inflicted ground on the Pakistani side.
A source indicated that the operation was carried out between 3:50 AM and 4:05 AM.
India had put all IAF bases in the western sector on maximum alert after the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
After the Pulwama attack, Modi announced that the armed forces have been given full freedom to respond to the strike.
The reports of the IAF operation was
first revealed by by Pakistan's Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations, Major-General Asif Ghafoor in a series of tweets.
"Indian aircraft intruded from Muzafarabad sector. Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force released payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage," Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a tweet.
"
Indian Air Force violated Line of Control Pakistan. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircraft gone back," he tweeted.
The development comes amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the February 14 suicide attack by Pakistan-based
Jaish-e-Mohammad
terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.
Read this report in Marathi(Inputs from agencies)
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