Addressing a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in New Delhi, the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval revealed that up to 25 top commanders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been eliminated in the operation, reports India Today.
The meeting was carried out following today’s (26 February) early morning Indian Air Force (IAF) raid on terrorist apparatus deep inside Pakistan.
The strike was carried out on JeM’s biggest terrorist training camp in Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in the wake of a recent terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir in which 40 soldiers were martyred.
Doval remarked that the destroyed target was not an ordinary terror launch pad or a base. He stated that “it was a virtual garrison.”
The NSA detailed how the facility included firing ranges, testing areas for explosives, air-conditioned offices for the trainers, as well as a barracks.
Doval asserted that the terrorist apparatus at Balakot had been set up with help from the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
He stated that the presence of so many JeM commanders in one place was part of a number of desperate steps taken by the ISI in the aftermath of the international condemnation of the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama.
Previously, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale stated that the pre-emptive strike was necessitated as there were reliable intelligence inputs of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) was training more fedayeen suicide attackers for terror strikes against India.
He had also revealed that the terror camp was being operated under the command of JeM supremo Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Maulana Yusuf Azhar, who is a terrorist on the lookout list of the Interpol.
