‘Our adversary was rattled by Operation Sindoor, targeted civilians in erratic response’: DGMO

The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, shared during a press briefing by the Armed Forces on Sunday that he tried to contact his counterpart in Pakistan soon after the ‘Operation Sindoor’ was launched, but the request was brusquely turned down, with an intimation that a severe response was inevitable and in the offing.

Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai said the aim of Operation Sindoor was to punish the perpetrators and planners of terror and to destroy their terror infrastructure.

“Our strikes across those nine terror hubs left more than 100 terrorists killed, including high value targets such as Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf, and Mudasir Ahmed, who were involved in the hijack of IC814 and the Pulwama blast. The erratic and rattled response of our enemy was apparent from the number of civilians, inhabited villages, and religious sites such as gurdwaras that were unfortunately hit by them, leading to a sad loss of civilian lives,” the DGMO added.

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“Being well aware and familiar with the congenital and impulsive nature of our adversary, and even though we did attempt to reach out and communicate our compulsions to strike at the heart of terror to my counterpart in the immediate wake of ‘Operation Sindoor’, the request was brusquely turned down, with an intimation that a severe response was inevitable and in the offing.”

Lt Gen Ghai added that the Indian forces were prepared for any retaliation, and soon Pakistan flew drones and aircraft into Indian airspace all across the border and made largely unsuccessful attempts to target military infrastructure while violations on the Line of Control (LoC) also continued.

On the evening of May 7, Indian forces were “swarmed by drones” launched by Pakistan, which were swiftly engaged and destroyed. The nature of the drone activity shifted over time, as more advanced UAVs were used between 7 and 8 pm, while by 8 to 9 pm, quadcopters were deployed primarily for surveillance and to harass civilians.

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Air Marshal AK Bharti said that Pakistan launched massive waves of drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) on the intervening night of May 8-9.

“It was a coordinated mass raid conducted in relentless waves. However, due to our robust air defence preparedness, no damage occurred — neither to strategic targets nor to civilian areas,” the Air Marshal said.

There was a concentrated effort by Pakistan to target airfields and logistic installations, which were denied efficiently by our defence.

“On the night of 8th and 9th, starting as early as 22:30 hours, our cities had a mass raid of drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, starting right from Srinagar going right up to Naliya. We were prepared and our air defence preparedness ensured that there was no damage on the ground or to any of the intended targets that the enemy might have planned for,” Air Marshal Bharti said.

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“While the drone attacks were being launched from somewhere closer to Lahore, the enemy had allowed their civilian aircraft also to continue to fly out of Lahore, not only their own aircraft but also international passenger aircraft, which is quite insensitive, and we had to exercise extreme caution,” he added.

“Following these relentless attacks on our civilian targets, it was time to convey a message hence a decision was taken to strike where it would hurt. We struck their airbases, and military infra,” the Air Marshal said.

The Indian armed forces said that they possess the capability to target any hostile system and that the recent precision strikes under Operation Sindoor were meant to “instil good wisdom” in adversaries.