IAF on Pakistan

Prelims level : Mains level : GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism
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  • Indian Air Force had carried out a strike inside Pakistan, targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp.

About:

  • 12 Mirage 2000 jets took part in the operation at around 3.30 am. The jets crossed the Line of Control and completely destroyed the target.
  • India had carried out a “non-military pre-emptive” action against the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s biggest terror camp, in Balakot .
  • Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar has his headquarters in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur. The Jaish was designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations in 2001
  • A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen [suicide] action have been killed.
  • The air strike is a response to the Jaish-e-Mohammad attack on paramilitary forces in Pulwama in Kashmir on February 14, which claimed the lives of over 40 troops.
  • Pakistan has taken no action to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil.
  • When India selected the target, it aimed to ensure that civilian casualties would be avoided. The facility that was attacked is located in thick forest, on a hilltop, far away from any civilian presence.
  • The last major strike carried out by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan was during the 1971 war for Bangladesh liberation. This is the first time before India and Pakistan became nuclear powers.
  • Even during the Kargil war in 1999, the incursions made were described as inadvertent and not specifically planned by the Air Force. In 2016, the Indian Army carried out a surgical strike across the LoC after a terrorist attack in Uri.
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