Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday once again threatened India followed by Operation Sindoor, saying that it will have to "suffer the consequences".
Addressing the country following India's overnight strikes on terror infrastructure in PoK and Pakistan, Sharif said, "Maybe they were thinking we would step back, but they forgot this is a nation of the brave."
He said 26 people were killed and 46 injured in the Indian strikes launched shortly after midnight on cities in the Punjab province and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Addressing a session of the Parliament earlier in the day, the Pakistani PM said that the Pakistan Army was ready for an Indian attack, lauding his forces for the "swift response". He claimed that the Pakistan armed forces destroyed five Indian jets. He, however, did not provide any evidence in support of his claim.
In a strong retaliation to the Pahalgam massacre, India's armed forces early Wednesday destroyed nine terror sites including that of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) using deep strike missiles in a 25-minute-long "measured and non-escalatory" mission.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India decided to carry out the "proportionate" strikes to bring the perpetrators and planners of the Pahalgam attack to justice as there was "no demonstrable step" from Pakistan to act against terrorist infrastructure on territories under its control. It was for the first time since the 1971 Indo-Pak war that India carried out an aerial attack deep inside Punjab province of Pakistan.
Fifteen days after the Pahalgam carnage on April 22, the targets for the military response codenamed 'Operation Sindoor' included the Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) stronghold of Bahawalpur in Punjab province that is located at over 100 km from the Indian border.
JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar acknowledged that 10 members of his family and four close associates were killed in India's missile attack.
Official sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the operation closely through the night. Later at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, he hailed the Indian armed forces for carrying out the successful targeted strikes at the terror camps.
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