An air strike Tuesday on a militant camp in killed “a very large number” of fighters preparing an attack on India, a senior foreign ministry official said after Pakistan accused it of crossing into its airspace.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told a media briefing that the raid on the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp at Balkot was launched because New Delhi believed suicide attacks in India were “imminent”.
“A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated,” he said.
JeM claimed responsibility for a February 14 suicide bomb attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitaries. An Indian air strike across the Kashmir ceasefire line early Tuesday “completely destroyed” a militant camp, a junior minister said.
“Air Force carried out aerial strike early morning today at terror camps across the LoC and completely destroyed it,” minister of state for agriculture, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said in English on Twitter, referring to the Line of Control that divides the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir.
Shekhawat’s comments, the first from the government on reports about a raid in Pakistani-controlled territory, come nearly two weeks after a suicide bomb attack in Indian Kashmir in which 40 Indian paramilitaries were killed. India had vowed to strike back after the bombing, which was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.
