New Delhi: In a decisive response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday convened a high-level meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah following the Indian Armed Forces’ precision strikes on multiple terror camps located inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) under the codename Operation Sindoor.
According to top security sources, over 80 terrorists were eliminated in the pre-dawn airstrikes. Among them were reportedly 10 close aides and family members of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Masood Azhar.
Major strikes targeted key sites in Bahawalpur and Muridke, with each location witnessing the neutralisation of 25–30 militants. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari confirmed that Hafiz Abdul Malik, a high-value Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) target, was taken out in a pinpoint strike on Markaz Tayyeba in Muridke, a location infamously known as the ideological hub of LeT and often dubbed Pakistan’s “terror nursery.”
Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, while presenting visuals of the destroyed facilities, stated that terror camps linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, including Muridke—where Ajmal Kasab and David Headley trained—were among the key targets hit.
In Bahawalpur, the strikes focused on Markaz Subhan Allah, the JeM headquarters, while another operation destroyed the Sarjal camp in Sialkot, just 6 km from the border, which was reportedly used for training militants involved in attacks on Jammu and Kashmir police personnel.
A separate strike on a madrasa housed within a mosque in Muzaffarabad, PoK, destroyed the Shawai Nallah Camp (Bait-ul-Mujahideen). This facility, located on the Muzaffarabad–Neelum road, has long served as a critical LeT asset and a training ground for several 26/11 attackers, including Kasab.
The operations come in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, which claimed the lives of 25 Indian civilians and one Nepali national. According to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, the group claiming responsibility, The Resistance Front, has been conclusively linked to LeT. “We have intercepted communication logs that clearly point to cross-border coordination,” he added.
These targeted strikes mark a strong signal of India’s resolve to combat cross-border terrorism, with top leadership closely monitoring the situation and its broader geopolitical impact.
