Any military attack on us will be met with very, very firm response: India

This attack compelled us to respond on May 7 by striking at cross-border terrorist infrastructure. Read further on Dynamite News

New Delhi: Amid mounting escalation in ties with Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said today that it is not India’s intention to escalate the situation with Pakistan, but “if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response”.

Speaking during the bilateral talks with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, EAM conveyed that it is important that Iran as a neighbour and close partner should “have a good understanding of this situation”.

He said: “Excellency, you are visiting India at a time when we are responding to a particularly barbaric terrorist attack on 22 April in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“This attack compelled us to respond on May 7 by striking at cross-border terrorist infrastructure.

“Our response was targeted and measured. It is not our intention to escalate this situation.

“However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very, very firm response.

“As a neighbour and close partner, it is important that you have a good understanding of this situation.”

The EAM’s comments come a day after India launched cross-border strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people, including a Nepali citizen, were brutally gunned down.

Earlier Incident

Suggesting that Islamabad was escalating confrontation, India on Thursday said Pakistan last night “attempted to engage a number of military targets” in this country, prompting a response “in the same domain with same intensity”, with the neighbouring nation’s Air Defence Radars and Systems being targeted.

Besides targeting military assets of India at 15 locations, Pakistan “increased the intensity” of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using Mortars and heavy calibre Artillery in areas in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in the killing of 16 innocent civilians, including 3 women and 5 children, the Defence Ministry said.

“Here too, India was compelled to respond to bring Mortar and Artillery fire from Pakistan to a halt,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement referred to the Press Briefing on ‘Operation SINDOOR’ held yesterday, where India had called its response to the Pahalgam terror attack as “focused, measured and non-escalatory”.

The ‘Operation Sindoor’ involved aerial attacks at 9 major terror camps at various places of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), including Muridke, Bahawalpur and Sialkot in Punjab Province and Muzaffarabad and Kotli in PoJK.