Sushma briefs opposition leaders on Balakot air strike

February 26, 2019 18:14

Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj briefed the opposition at an all-party meeting this evening in the wake of a "non-military, preemptive action' by Indian forces on a major Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot across the Line of Control. The meeting was held at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan in Delhi. With the Foreign minister were Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance minister Arun Jaitley.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC patron Mamata Banerjee did not attend the meeting despite making it to New Delhi by evening, but party MP Derek O'Brien was in attendance. From the Congress, there was Ghulam Nabi Azad, from the NC Omar Abdullah, and from the CPI D Raja, among others.

In a swift and precise air strike following the Pulwama attack, India bombed and destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Pakistan early Tuesday, killing at least 350 terrorists including trainers and senior commanders.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said credible intelligence was received that the JeM was planning to carry out other suicide attacks in India after the Pulwama bombing on a CRPF convoy 12 days ago that killed 40 jawans. "In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of today (Tuesday), India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot," Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said. "In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated." -- PTI

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