India Had No Option But To Strike Pakistan Based Terrorists: Swaraj Explains

India had no other option but to take ‘pre-emptive action’ because of continued refusal of Pakistan to acknowledge and act against terror groups on its territory, says External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the plenary foreign ministerial meeting of the Russia-India-China(RIC) grouping.

Turkey Ready to Support Pakistan in Case of A War with India

She explained that no military installations were targeted. “The limited objective of the pre-emptive strike was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in order to pre-empt another terrorist attack in India.” In the early hours of Tuesday, the Indian Air Force (IAF) bombed the JeM training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot.

Swaraj addressed Russia and China as the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) assaulted Indian targets across the Line of Control (LoC), from within the Pakistani airspace. Reports state that the wreckage of one of the Indian jets fell within Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and the second fell in India occupied Kashmir (IoK).

The Indian External Affairs Minister said India does not wish to see a further escalation of the situation. Over the past week, the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had been urging India for dialogue but to no avail. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the situation was ‘past talks’. At the RIC meeting, Swaraj slammed Pakistan for harbouring terrorists. In regards to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, she said: “this terrorist attack is the direct result of the impunity and cover provided to the JeM and its leaders by the Pakistani side.”

Meanwhile, there is an exchange of fire and shelling at the LoC. Is this what India had wanted? Shunning dialogue and talks for airstrikes and bombs.

More News at EurAsian Times