India undertook non-military preemptive action designed to avoid civilian casualties, said Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.
An air strike Tuesday on a militant camp killed "a very large number" of fighters preparing an attack on India, a senior foreign ministry official said after Pakistan accused it of crossing into its airspace.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told a media briefing that the raid on the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp at Balkot was launched because New Delhi believed suicide attacks in India were "imminent".
"A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated," he said.
JeM claimed responsibility for a February 14 suicide bomb attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitaries.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale: Credible intelligence was received that Jaish-e-Mohammed was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country & fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose pic.twitter.com/1SRgYvqjtv
— ANI (@ANI) 26 February 2019
Vijay Gokhale: Large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders were eliminated in largest JeM camp in Balakot. Camp was led by Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghauri, brother in law of JeM Chief Masood Azhar pic.twitter.com/l76nGMF0zV
— ANI (@ANI) 26 February 2019
Sources: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has briefed both President and Vice-President about the #IndianAirForce strike at JeM terror camp in Balakot across LoC. pic.twitter.com/mDvbAllu6s
— ANI (@ANI) 26 February 2019
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