In a latest development following May 7 Operation Sindoor, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif has said that Islamabad is ready to end the conflict if India backs down. He made the remarks during an interview with Bloomberg TV. Operation Sindoor targeted nine terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The strikes came in response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, including one Nepali national. Asif acknowledged that attacks occurred in seven locations, including PoK. The strikes were in response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam that led to the death of 26 civilians, including a Nepali citizen.
What Asif Said
“It all depends on India, it has been initiated by India. If they are ready to back down… they have taken the initiative, we have just responded,” Pak defence minister Kwaja Asif told Bloomberg in response to a question on how far Islamabad is willing to go after Operation Sindoor.
“We have been saying all along last fortnight that we’ll never initiate anything hostile towards India. But, if we are attacked we will respond. If India backs down, we will definitely wrap up these things. But as long as we are under attack, we have to respond.”
Khawaja further claimed that Pakistan has shot down Indian fighter jets, which has been refuted by New Delhi.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” India’s defence ministry statement had said soon after the attack.
Operation Sindoor
It took precisely 25 minutes from 1.25 am on Wednesday to carry out 24 missile strikes on nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was the first tri-service military operation – involving the Army, Navy, and Air Force – by India since the 1971 war with Pakistan. According to the Indian military, the operation named ‘Sindoor’ is said to have claimed 80-90 terrorists.
As per the India government, Operation Sindoor was a “measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible” answer to Pak’s continuing support of terrorism. The strike killed 70 terrorists and injured more than 60 at nine different places. These locations included camps where David Headley and Ajmal Kasab were trained. Both were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Some of the other camps had trained terrorists who attacked civilians in Jammu and Kashmir. Other anti-terror operations by the Indian military were given more war-like names, such as ‘Vijay’ during the Kargil War in 1999 and ‘Trident’ and ‘Python’ during the 1971 war.
