A decisive strike and a strategic success for India – Firstpost

In a bold and precisely coordinated military operation last night, India launched Operation Sindoor, a deep penetration precision strikes aimed at dismantling entrenched terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan — a country long known to be a breeding ground for anti-India jihadist outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and numerous others.  This operation, conducted with surgical precision and strategic restraint, has emerged not only as a tactical victory but also has served a strong geopolitical message to Pakistan, signalling bringing to an end an era of impunity for harbouring terrorism for decades.  By carrying out precision strikes deep inside Pakistan, India has delivered a clear strategic response that it now reserves the right to pre-emptively neutralize threats emanating from across its borders.

The strikes, which took place at nine different locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir including that in Bahawalpur, Punjab and Muridke near Lahore, specifically targeted Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) facilities. These are two of the most notorious terror organisations with a long history of orchestrating attacks on Indian soil – from the 2001 Parliament attack to the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the more recent Pahalgam terror attack in South Kashmir that led to the brutal killing of 26 individuals at the hands of LeT terrorists.

Intelligence inputs had long confirmed that these facilities were not merely hideouts but operational headquarters, being actively used for recruitment, training, and indoctrination of young Pakistani men in jihadist ideology, primarily with the aim of launching them into Jammu & Kashmir and other parts of India to wage terrorism.

The JeM facility in Bahawalpur, under the direct oversight of Masood Azhar, was a central node in this terror network. Intelligence agencies had tracked a series of activities indicating the expansion of this compound over the past year. New dormitories, weapons storage units, and a separate hall for ideological indoctrination and a swimming pool for recreation were being constructed.

Satellite imagery corroborated by on-ground human intelligence suggested that Masood Azhar himself was orchestrating an upgrade of the infrastructure, envisioning it as a “terror university” of sorts for his cadre. The facility was reportedly housing over 150 trained terrorists along with his own family members in different stages of operational readiness, including several foreign jihadists from Afghanistan and the Gulf, being also groomed for fidayeen (suicide) missions in India.

In Muridke, the strike hit the LeT’s long-standing headquarters, which, under the aegis of Hafiz Saeed, has functioned with the veneer of charity under the umbrella of Jamaat-ud-Dawa. This dual-use facility served both as a nerve centre for planning cross-border infiltration and as a madrasa complex where indoctrination and radicalization were conducted under clerical guidance. India’s intelligence establishment confirmed that advanced weaponry, encrypted communication systems, and counterfeit Indian currency were being stored within these compounds, turning them into state-sanctioned terror factories.

Crucially, Operation Sindoor was conducted with utmost care to avoid civilian casualties, demonstrating India’s military and moral commitment to targeting only terrorists and not the people of Pakistan. Advanced surveillance drones and precision-guided munitions ensured that only specific buildings within the compounds were struck, avoiding adjacent civilian structures.

This distinction is critical, as it reinforces India’s consistent assertion that its fight is not against the Pakistani populace but against the terror infrastructure shielded by elements within the Pakistani state. Despite Pakistan’s attempt to label terrorists and their families as innocent civilians, the numerous visuals and ground reports have made it abundantly clear that several high profile terrorists of both JeM and LeT have been eliminated in the precision strikes carried out on their multiple facilities.

Furthermore, the aftermath of the operation has revealed even deeper evidence of the state-terror nexus that New Delhi has long accused Pakistan of sustaining. Among the most damning developments was the funeral ceremony for several top LeT operatives killed in the precision strikes. Leading the funeral prayers was Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and the brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed, himself a UN-designated global terrorist.

Shocking visuals and eyewitness reports confirmed that senior Pakistani Army officers and police officials were present at the ceremony, standing in solidarity with the slain terrorists. Their attendance was neither covert nor reluctant, it was one that was marked by official protocol, complete with security cordons and coordinated salutes. This public mingling of Pakistan’s military elite with designated terrorists is a stark indictment of the Pakistani state, further confirming that terrorism is not a fringe activity but a mainstream instrument of its state policy doctrine.

Such open camaraderie between uniformed officials and jihadist leader’s underscores what India has long argued on global platforms, that Pakistan remains a state sponsor of terrorism, offering not just logistical and financial support but also ideological and political sanctuaries to terrorists targeting India. The presence of officialdom at terrorist funerals is not just symbolic, it is evidence of a deeply entrenched ecosystem where terrorism and state institutions operate in tandem, shielded from international scrutiny and emboldened by nuclear blackmail.

This operation also underscores a pivotal shift in India’s strategic doctrine, signalling a clear move from a reactive to a proactive counter-terrorism posture. By striking deep inside Pakistan’s heartland, well beyond the traditional confines of the Line of Control, India has significantly raised the cost of terrorism for Islamabad. On one hand it has again called out the bluff of Pakistan’s nuclear threat and on the other it has signalled that geography is no longer a sanctuary for terrorism, and that strategic depth will not shield terror masterminds. This mirrors the evolution in India’s policy of dealing with terrorism from Pakistan as seen earlier in the 2016 Uri surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, but Operation Sindoor surpasses them in both depth and decisiveness.

What differentiates Operation Sindoor from previous actions is the surgical precision combined with strategic ambiguity. While India did not publicly declare the specifics of the operation initially, international intelligence agencies and media sources have independently corroborated the scale and effectiveness of the strikes. This controlled messaging has not only allowed India to maintain escalation control but has also placed Pakistan in a diplomatic dilemma, of denial becoming implausible, while admission would imply acknowledgment of terror infrastructure within sovereign territory.

Furthermore, Operation Sindoor has also placed the international community on notice. While India has long suffered from cross-border terrorism under the tacit protection of the Pakistani military establishment, global powers had often responded with platitudes and calls for restraint. This time, India’s calibrated yet forceful action has drawn tacit support from several nations, including France, the United States, and Japan, who understand that non-state actors cannot be allowed safe havens within nuclear-armed states.

Perhaps most significantly, the operation has caused visible disruption within Pakistan’s terror ecosystem. Reports from internal Pakistani sources suggest panic and disarray among jihadist networks, with many top commanders going underground or relocating to more remote areas near the Afghanistan border. It has also widened the civil-military rift within Pakistan, with questions being raised in Islamabad about the wisdom of continuing to protect entities like JeM and LeT at the cost of diplomatic isolation and internal instability.

In conclusion, Operation Sindoor marks a watershed moment in India’s counter-terrorism strategy. It is not just a military success but a strategic declaration of intent, that the Indian state will no longer be a passive victim of cross-border terror, and that it has both the capability and the will to strike back surgically, precisely, and within the bounds of international law. The funeral of terrorists attended by top Pakistani officers has exposed the depth of Pakistan’s complicity and irreparably damaged its deniability on the global stage.

Operation Sindoor reinforces the principle that peace in South Asia cannot be held hostage to the strategic calculus of those who use terror as an instrument of state policy. If Pakistan chooses to ignore this message, it does so at its own peril.

Raja Muneeb is an independent journalist and columnist. He tweets @rajamuneeb. The views expressed in this article are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.