A year of Pulwama attack: How India avenged jawans' deaths

Around 3 pm on February 14 last year, a 21-year-old Jaish-e-Muhammad suicide bomber, Anil Dar, rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy at Lethpora in Pulwama, blowing himself up and killing at least 40 paramilitary personnel.

The attack on the convoy of 78 buses, in which around 2500 CRPF personnel were travelling, flared up the existing tensions between India and Pakistan. As nationwide protests erupted against the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that "all tears will be avenged". He added that armed forces would be given "full freedom to decide the place, time, intensity and nature of retaliation against the enemy".

Around 12 days after the Pulwama attack, in the wee hours Indian Air Force jets bombed the JeM camp in Balakot in Pakistan. Located on the banks of Kunhar river in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, the camp was also used by another terror group Hizbul Mujahideen.

The camp, located 20 km from the Balakot town, was an important training centre for the JeM and other terror organisations and it had several structures to accommodate new recruits and facilities to train them.

With its action, India has sent out a strong message to Pakistan that support for and orchestration of terrorism against this country will not go unpunished.
Apart from the Balakot airstrike, India had suspended the bus service between Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir and Srinagar for a week. The bus service, which started in 2005, operates across the Line of Control.

India had also hiked customs duty to 200 per cent on goods such as cement, fresh fruits, petroleum products that were imported from Pakistan.

On the international front, India urged the Security Council Sanctions Committee to designate Azhar as a global terrorist. In May, the United Nations designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist". A UNSC designation subjected Azhar to an assets freeze, travel ban and an arms embargo.