India does not wish to see a further escalation of the situation and will continue to act with responsibility and restraint, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told China and Russia on Wednesday after the country targeted terrorist training camp in Pakistan as she asked all nations to show “zero tolerance to terrorism”.
Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan for the February 14 Pulwama terror attack at the Russia, India and China (RIC) meeting in Wuzhen, Swaraj 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).
“The recent dastardly terrorist attack on our security forces in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir is perpetrated by Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistan-based and supported terrorist organisation proscribed by the UN and other countries. We lost more than 40 personnel from CRPF,” Swaraj said.
“Such dastardly terrorist attacks are a grim reminder for all the countries to show zero tolerance to terrorism and take decisive action against them,” she said at the meeting attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
She said after the Pulwama terrorist attack, Pakistan instead of taking seriously the call for the international community to act against the JeM and other terror groups denied any knowledge of the attack and outrightly dismissed claims by the JeM.
“In the light of continued refusal of Pakistan to acknowledge and act against terror groups on its territory and based on credible information that the JeM is planning other attacks in various parts of India, Government of India has decided to take pre-emptive action,” she said.
“The target was selected in order to avoid civilian casualties,” she said.
She said India’s action was not a military operation and the aim was to dismantle the terror infrastructure.
“No military installations were targeted. The limited objective of the pre-emptive strike was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of the JeM in order to pre-empt another terrorist attack in India,” she said.
“India does not wish to see a further escalation of the situation and India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint,” she said.
India carried out “non-military pre-emptive” airstrikes targeting the JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control (LoC) early Tuesday, killing a “very large number” of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.
In a 21-minute offensive, 12 Mirage 2000 jets carried out the strike at around 3.30 am and dropped 1000 Kg bombs on terror camps across LOC, completely destroying it.
The IAF jets struck terror camps and launch pads across the LoC in Balakot at around 3.45 am, Muzaffarabad at around 3.48 am and Chakoti at around 3.58 am.
The camp in Balakot was led by Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghauri, brother-in-law of JeM Chief Masood Azhar. Yusuf Azhar was on the Interpol list and among the most wanted in India.
According to reports over 300 terrorists were killed in the assault.
The airstrikes come in the wake of February 14 terror attack in which over 44 CRPF personnel were killed and many injured in one of the deadliest terror strikes in Jammu-Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle near their bus in Pulwama district.
(With PTI inputs)