Operation Sindoor: Modi targeted kids, veiled women & elderly, says Azhar Masood as he mourns death of 10 family members

Operation Sindoor: Globally-designated terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, Masood Azhar has acknowledged on 7 May that 14 people, including 10 members of his family and four close associates, were killed in India's 'Operation Sindoor' on the terror outfit's headquarters in Bahawalpur in Pakistan.

A statement by Azhar circulated through his Telegram channel said those killed in the attack on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur included the JeM chief's elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children from his extended family.

The statement further mentioned that the attack also claimed the lives of one of Azhar’s close associate and his mother, along with two other close companions.'

Modi targets global terrorist Masood's Home

“…Modi has targetted innocent kids, women in veil and elderly. I have no words to describe how sorrowful and shocked I am,” Azhar writes in the statement basically acknowlegding that Indian Operation Sindoor hit his home in Bahawalpur in Pakistan.

Indian armed forces carried out precision strikes at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the government said early Wednesday morning. In all, 9 areas have been targeted, the government said in the statement, codenaming the strike ‘Operation Sindoor.’

The ‘revenge’ strike comes two weeks after the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's popular hill station.

Azhar, however, said he wished he was part of the 14 ‘fortunate’ people from his home killed in the attack. “But time to meet God (die) is fixed. There were four kids in our home yesterday aged between 3 and 7 years. All of them have gone to live in heavens,” Azhar said.

Operation to respond to the Pahalgam terror attack

The government said that Indian armed forces durng Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist infrastructure and no civilains were attacked. Briefing reporters about the operation on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that India launched Operation Sindoor exercising its right to respond to the Pahalgam terror attack and preempt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks.

These actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible, he said. They focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India, Misri said at a press conference.

Azhar, 56, designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, is a blue-eyed boy of Pakistan's spy agency ISI and is believed to behind many terror attacks in India including the 2001 Parliament strike and the Pulwama attack of 2019.

The attack in Pahalgam was marked by extreme barbarity, with the victims mostly killed with head shots from close range and in front of their families. Family members were deliberately traumatised through the manner of the killing, accompanied by the exhortation that they should take back the message, Mirsi said.

“Instead, all it has indulged in are denials and allegations. Our intelligence monitoring of Pakistan-based terrorist modules indicated that further attacks against India were impending. There was thus a compulsion both to deter and to preempt,” Misri said.

(With PTI inputs)