Operation Sindoor: PM Shehbaz asserts Pak forces ‘thwarted’ Indian attack with…, claims PAF has…
Operation Sindoor: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday claimed that Indian missile strikes under Operation Sindoor were successfully neutralized by the country’s armed forces with a “swift response”.
PAF downed Indian Rafale jets?
Addressing a Parliament session after India launched offensive strikes on as many as nine terror bases inside Pakistan and PoK, Sharif claimed that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) downed five Indian fighter jets, without providing any shred of evidence to support his claim.
“Last night, 80 Indian aircraft were part of the offensive, but Pakistan’s air defence effectively neutralised the threat. We shot down five enemy jets, including Rafales, and also downed two Indian drones,” Shehbaz Sharif claimed without giving any evidence for his claims, according to news agency PTI.
He also claimed that Pakistani forces jammed the systems of India’s Rafale fighter jets, while asserting that Islamabad had prior intelligence about India’s plans and armed forces were on “high alert”. “Our armed forces were on high alert round the clock and ready to defend the homeland,” he said.
Shehbaz Sharif also said that Pakistan had offered a transparent international investigation into the Pahalgam attack, and accused India of responding “aggression” instead of cooperation.
‘Act of war’
Earlier, the Pakistan PM presided over the National Security Council (NSC) meeting, attended by cabinet ministers, chief ministers, all services chiefs and senior officers to discuss the situation following India’s Operation Sindoor missile strikes.
During the meeting, the members described the Indian strikes as “unprovoked” and “unlawful act of war” and said the “armed forces of Pakistan have duly been authorised to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.”
In a statement, the Pakistan Army claimed that as many as 26 civilians were were killed and 46 injured in the Indian strikes launched shortly after midnight on cities in the Punjab province and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Responding to the Indian attack, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan exercised restraint in the face of India’s strikes.
Operation Sindoor
On Wednesday midnight, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor, a series of deadly, precision strikes on terror infrastructures deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), raising the fears of a full-blown India-Pakistan war as Islamabad has vowed to issue a strong response to “India’s aggression”.
The missile strikes on terror camps were carried out to avenge last month’s heinous Pahalgam terror attack in which terrorists gunned down 26 civilians, mostly Indian Hindu tourists in Kashmir valley.
In a press briefing in national capital New Delhi Delhi hours after the military strikes, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh revealed the details and objectives of Operation Sindoor. They said that a total of nine terror camps of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen, were targeted by Indian forces, four of which are in mainland Pakistan while the remaining in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
According to details, more than 70 terrorists and their sympathizers, including 10 family member and four close aides of JeM chief Masood Azhar, were killed in the strikes. Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed was also reportedly injured in the assault, while his close aide was killed.
(With inputs from agencies)
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