New Delhi: The famous ‘Balakot Air Strike’, the first aerial assault carried out by India in Pakistan after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, completes two years today.
On this day, 2 years ago, Air strikes were conducted during the wee hours on terror launch pads located in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Paktunkhwa province. A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed, JeM terrorists, trainers and Jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen attacks were eliminated by the Indian Air Force.
Codenamed as ‘Operation Bandar’, the Balakot Air Strike was conducted by the seventh and ninth squadrons of the Indian Air Force.
The strikes were carried out in retaliation to the February 14 Pulwama attack on convoy of vehicles carrying CRPF security personnel.
The IAF used the upgraded Mirage 2000 and Sukhio Su-30 MKI to carry out the attack.
The Balakot Air Strike was mainly conducted by 12 Mirage 2000 that flew from the Gwalior Air Force base.
The Mirage 2000 jet fighters, flying three separate formations, flew over north and central India for hours before entering Pakistan.
Pakistan responded to the Balakot air strike with F-16 fighter jets.
The retaliation came after a convoy of vehicles carrying CRPF personnel was attacked by JeM suicide bombers in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on 14th February last year in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred. During the air strike, Indian Air Force destroyed the biggest terror training camp of JeM at Balakot. Indian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jets crossed the India-Pakistan border to attack terror camps. Bombing of Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot by Indian Air Force marked a paradigm shift in the way India conducts anti-terror operations.
Addressing a public rally at Churu in Rajasthan on the same day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reassured that the country is in safe hands.
