India targets JeM, LeT headquarters in Pakistan Punjab

New Delhi: Indian forces targeted the headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba groups in the missile attacks against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.

Among the nine sites targeted are the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and the LeT’s in Muridke, both in Pakistan Punjab, they said.

A Pakistani armed force spokesperson confirmed to BBC in an interview that the IAF had targeted Bahawalpur and Muridke.

India has categorically stated that its actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India’s action comes two weeks after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed,

“A little while ago, the Indian Armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement released at 1.44 am.

“India has demonstrated considerable restraint in the selection of targets and method of execution,” it said.

Bahawalpur became the hub of the JeM terror group after the release of Masood Azhar in exchange for the hijacked passengers of IC-814 in 1999. The group has since then been involved in a series of terror strikes in India, including the Parliament attack in 2001, the strike on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in 2000, the attack on the IAF base in Pathankot in 2016 and the Pulwama suicide bombing in 2019.

Azhar, designated a global terrorist, has not been seen in public since April 2019. He started the terror outfit in January 2000 and received assistance from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the then Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and Sunni sectarian outfits in Pakistan, officials said.

Muridke, 30 km from Lahore, has been the headquarters of the LeT since 1990. It is headed by Hafiz Saeed and responsible for the 26/11 terror siege of Mumbai. It has also carried out terror strikes many other parts of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, Bangalore and Hyderabad, officials said.

Saeed, the shadowy mastermind of the LeT, designated as a terror group by the United Nations Security Council, is in India’s most wanted list.

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