Indian forces killed 14 family members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar in a 25-minute operation carried out in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as per sources.
Those killed in Operation Sindoor included the son of Masood Azhar’s brother and India’s most wanted terrorist Rauf Asgar. Rauf Asgar was critically injured.
In the attack on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur, Azhar’s elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children from his extended family were also killed, as per a statement attributed to him. The statement further mentioned that the attack also claimed the lives of one of Azhar’s close associates and his mother, along with two other close companions.
Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on terror targets, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base in Muridke.
The military strikes were conducted under Operation Sindoor two weeks after the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
At a press conference, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Col. Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh briefed the media about details of the operation that lasted for 25 minutes. Misri said the actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible.
“Despite a fortnight having passed since the attack, there has been no demonstrable step from Pakistan to take action against the terrorist infrastructure on its territory or territory under its control. Instead all it has indulged in is denial and allegations,” he said.
“Our intelligence monitoring of Pakistan-based terror modules indicated that further attacks against India were impending. There was thus a compulsion both to deter and to preempt,” Misri added.
