IAF strikes in Pakistan live updates: India issues demarche to Pakistan, demands immediate and safe return of pilot

In 2018, India's defence budget stood at $58bn, five times larger than Pakistan's one. Also, Indian Army boasts of 12 lakh active troops, while Pakistan has mere 5.6 lakh personnel in its army

The US statement, by its very wording, tone, and sequence, acknowledged India’s right to conduct the punitive strikes against terrorist camps. Although the statement eventually encouraged both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, it put the onus on Islamabad to do so by abjuring military response against India and instead directing meaningful action against terrorist groups.

Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan for Pulwama terror attack at the Russia, India and China (RIC) meeting here, she defended India's airstrikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan, saying that it was pre-emptive action aimed at stopping further attacks by Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM).

JeM’s terror camp in Balakot subjected its cadres to rigorous motivational drill to become ‘fidayeen’ and eventually trained them for eight months to a year for suicide bombing. As per documents exclusively accessed by TOI, the selected cadre at Balakot started off with a 15-day training in religious education.

The US firmly asked Pakistan to take "meaningful action" against terrorist groups operating on its soil and underscored the importance of avoiding escalation at any cost after India targeted terrorist camp in Pakistan.

Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, has delivered a letter to the United Nations Security Council claiming a breach of security and peace after India carried out multiple air strikes in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. "Our Foreign minister's letter to the UN Secretary-General about India's act of aggression against Pakistan has been circulated as a document to the UN Security Council today, at our request," Maleeha Lodhi said. After the Indian strike on a major Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot, Pakistan told the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike is equivalent to "aggression against Pakistan."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke separately with the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan and urged them to avoid "further military activity" following an air strike by India inside Pakistan. "I expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost," Pompeo said in a statement issued in Washington. "I also encouraged both Ministers to prioritize direct communication and avoid further military activity," he said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today raised the recent Pulwama suicide attack in her crucial bilateral meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, a day after India destroyed a major Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) terror training camp in Pakistan. "I am visiting China at a time when there is grief and anger in India. It is the worst terrorist attack directed against our security forces in Jammu and Kashmir," she said in her opening remarks during the meeting held on the side-lines of Russia, India, China Foreign Ministers meeting. "The attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Muhammed, the Pakistan-based and supported terrorist organisation," she said.

India conducted pre-dawn aerial strikes on a major Jaish-e-Mohammed terror training facility at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region on Tuesday, breaking free of its self-imposed shackles in countering the cross-border proxy war fuelled by its hostile western neighbour for decades. The strikes came 12 days after the Pulwama terror attack claimed 40 CRPF troopers.