Operation Sindoor: Over 100 terrorists including high-value targets killed in May 7 strikes, says DGMO

New Delhi: The Indian armed forces carried out "careful scrutiny" of the nine cross-border terror camps down to their layouts and configurations and terrains around them before conducting the precision strikes on them on May 7 under Operation Sindoor, Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai said on Sunday.

"I have no doubt in my mind that we achieved total surprise and those strikes across those nine terror hubs left more than 100 terrorists killed, including high-value targets," the top Army officer said during a media briefing here.

Aerial images of some of the camps, taken before and after the strike, were also shown on a large screen during the briefing that came a day after India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea with immediate effect after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes that brought the two countries teetering on the edge of full scale war.

Directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan agreed on the understanding during a call on May 10 afternoon.

Operation Sindoor was launched early May 7 to destroy nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation.

"You are now familiar with the brutality and the dastardly manner in which 26 lives were prematurely terminated at Pahalgam on April 22. When you combine those horrific scenes and the pain of the families the nation witnessed, with numerous other terrorist strikes on our armed forces, and defenceless civilians, we knew that the time had arrived to make yet another compelling statement of our resolve as a nation," the DGMO said.

Operation Sindoor was conceptualised with a clear military aim to "punish the perpetrators and planners" of terror and to destroy their terror infrastructure, he said.

"What I do not state here, of course, is the often stated determination of India and its intolerance to terror. It sent into motion, a very diligent and microscopic scarring of the terror landscape across the borders and the identification of terror camps and training sites," Lt Gen Ghai said.

The Army officer said the locations that emerged were "numerous", but as "we deliberated more, we realised that some of these terror hubs were now bereft of any presence and preemptively been vacated fearing retribution from us".

There was also a "term of reference and our own binding self-imposed restrictions" to target only terrorists, and thus "prevent collateral damage", he added.

"There were nine camps that you are now all familiar with, which were confirmed by our various intelligence agencies, to be inhabited. Some of these were in PoJK (Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir), while there were others which were located in Punjab province in Pakistan," Lt Gen Ghai said.

Nefarious places such as Muridke, the hub centre of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has over the years spread infamous characters such as Ajmal Kasab and the likes of David Headley, he underlined.

"What followed was a careful scrutiny of each of these sinister locations, their layout, configuration, even the type of construction in each structure and the terrain obtained around these. This was with an obvious intent to deduce and identify exact vector that was required for their neutralisation, as also the eyes in the sky that we would send up to ensure that we brought back evidence that we had indeed targeted what we set out to," the DGMO asserted.

The precise images of these engagements on that "fateful and historical night" have already been showcased during the first statement on May 7 that was helmed by the foreign secretary, he said.

"I have no doubt in my mind that we achieved total surprise and those 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 DGMO told reporters.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) played a "major role" in these strikes by engaging some of these camps and the Indian Navy "provided wherewithal in terms of precision munition".

Director General of Air Operations, IAF, Air Marshal AK Bharti, also addressed the media on the role of the IAF in Operation Sindoor.

"We carefully selected the targets and out of the nine selected targets, the target systems that were given to the IAF, were the notorious training camps at Bahawalpur and Muridke," he said.

Under Operation Sindoor, the Indian military targeted Markaz Taiba of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Muridke, Markaz Subhan Allah of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Bahawalpur, Hizbul Mujahideen's Mehmoona Joya Facility in Sialkot and the LeT's base in Markaz Ahle Hadith in Barnala and its camp in Muzaffarabad's Shawai Nalla, military officials said.