'Op Sindoor did not happen overnight': DGMO Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai on how J&K became hotbed of terror strikes

Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7

Director General Military Operations Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai on Tuesday said Operation Sindoor did not happen overnight.

While addressing a press briefing, Ghai said problems in Jammu and Kashmir began in the 1980s. "Since then, we've had more than 28,000 terror incidents. Since the 90s, we've had more than 100,000 people from the minorities who have been compelled to move out of Jammu and Kashmir, a migration of more than 60,000 families... 15,000 innocent civilians and more than 3000 security personnel have been killed, and it's very clear where this is coming from... It is not as if Operation Sindoor happened overnight. If you take your mind back to the attack on our parliament back in 2001, we were compelled to carry out a mobilisation on our borders. We remained there for almost a year. Yet, a wiser sense prevailed, and we didn't take matters forward. In 2016, some of our security personnel were barbarically ambushed, some of their tents were set on fire, and we then resorted to an action that was yet in the vicinity of the LoC. In 2019, we carried out a precision strike across the LoC and restricted it to that. But this time, it was the intensity and the magnitude of the events that took place..." he also said.

Ghai also said India, a key UN peacekeeping contributor, applied its experience in modern conflict during Operation Sindoor, addressing evolving threats and terrorism. "It offers valuable military, operational, and humanitarian insights for shaping future peacekeeping doctrine," said Ghai.