US President Donald Trump has said the country knew something was going to happen and that he hoped “it ends very quickly”, after India conducted precision strikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan weeks after a terrorist attack that killed 26 people, mostly civilians, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
“We just heard about it as we were walking in the doors of the Oval. I guess we knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past,” Trump said, responding to a question during a press conference.
Indian armed forces carried out precision strikes at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the government said on early Wednesday morning. In all, 9 locations have been targeted, the government said in the statement, calling the strike ‘Operation Sindoor.’
“They have been fighting for many many decades, and centuries when you think about it. Nah, I just hope it ends very quickly,” the US president said.
The defence ministry described the strikes on Pakistan as a “precise and restrained response” to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack and stressed that no Pakistani military facilities were hit, reflecting India’s “calibrated and non-escalatory approach”.
The Pakistan military’s media arm, Inter-Services Public Relations, said India has “struck three places from the air” – Bhawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab Province as well as Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The ISPR said all the strikes were conducted from Indian airspace and Pakistan would respond at a time and place of its choosing.
Muridke is the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to be behind the Pahalgam attack, and Bahawalpur is the base of the Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said attacks were carried out in five locations and that the country “retains the right to respond forcefully”. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called India’s military strikes “an unprovoked and blatant act of war”.
The Indian strike comes after days of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror strike with New Delhi announcing a host of punitive measures against Islamabad, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, shutting down of the only operational land border crossing at Attari and downgrading of diplomatic ties following the terror attack.
