At 1.44 am on May 6, 2025, 15 days after the Pahalgam terror attack - in which terrorists linked to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba killed 26 people, mostly civilians - India launched overnight military strikes against nine terror camps in that country and Pak-occupied Kashmir, or PoK.
Precision weapons like the SCALP missile and HAMMER bomb, as well as 'loitering munitions', i.e., drone-borne missiles that can hover over an area to locate and strike targets, were used.
The nine targets included sites used to train terrorists behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and launch those who slaughtered 26 people - all men, including a 70-year-old retiree - in Pahalgam.
Codenamed 'Operation Sindoor', the strikes targeted camps and launchpads used by the Lashkar, the Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the Hizbul Mujahideen, three groups that have caused India much grief and loss over the years, including Uri in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019.
It was also the first tri-services military operation since the 1971 war with Pakistan.
Speculation about a military response to Pahalgam had been building, beginning with sources telling NDTV last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given the military 'complete operational freedom'.
That buzz intensified earlier this week after the government announced 'war games' in Rajasthan, covering swathes of land along the border with Pakistan, and 'civil defence' drills nationwide.
When it came, the military response to Pahalgam - the strikes began at 1.44 am May 6 - was the third time in the past nine years that India has ordered military action following a major terrorist attack.
Operation Sindoor
On the morning of April 22, 2025, the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam was the picture of happiness and joy; tourists had flocked to the 'mini-Switzerland' in south Kashmir to enjoy the cool air and the rolling green meadows. By 2pm that day, the green was covered with dead bodies.
Minutes earlier four terrorists swarmed out of forests bordering the meadow and killed 26 people, mostly civilians and even a Nepali national, in the worst terror attack in years.
India, and the global community, was outraged, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed justice for those killed, declaring his government would hunt down those responsible.
READ | "Am Telling The World...": PM's Big Warning On Terror, In English
A little over two weeks later, on May 6, the Indian military launched an overnight attack that targeted a terrorist group's HQ and training camps used against the country.
READ | Operation Sindoor: Precision Strikes At Terror Bases In Pakistan
Sources told NDTV that depending on Pak's reaction, 'Op Sindoor' was the first phase.
An unspecified number of terrorists were killed in the attack.
Visuals from Pak social media accounts showing the bombs detonating.
Pak's retaliation was immediate; cross-border firing killed three civilians in J&K.
The two earlier occasions in which the Indian military was deployed were Uri 2016 and Pulwama 2019.
Uri Surgical Strike
On September 18, 2016, terrorists linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked an Army base, a brigade HQ, in fact, near the town of Uri in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.
Nineteen soldiers were killed. Thirty others were injured.
British broadcaster the BBC called it 'the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades'. This was during a time when terrorist activity was extremely high in the Valley.
The terror attack led to a six-hour gun battle in which all four terrorists were killed.
Over 40 CRPF soldiers died in the terror attack on a convoy in Pulwama.
India vowed to avenge its fallen; 24 hours after the attack Rajnath Singh, then the Home Minister, and the late Manohar Parrikar, then the Defence Minister, met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and other senior officials, to plan the nation's military response.
Nine days after that India struck, armed not only with deadly weapons but also proof of Pakistan's involvement in the Uri attack; this included the recovery of grenades and other equipment - with Pak Army markings - from the bodies of the eliminated terrorists.
The Army crossed the Line of Control to destroy terror launchpads in PoK.
READ | New Video Of 2016 Surgical Strikes Shows Assault On Terror Launchpads
It was a successful operation; the Army said it had made a 'pre-emptive strike' against terrorists planning to 'infiltrate and conduct terror attacks inside J&K and various metros in other states'.
There was no confirmation from the government, but reports said over 100 terrorists were killed.
Balakot Air Strike
Fast-forward three years and Kashmir once again witnessed a major terrorist attack.
And this time the number of Indian soldiers killed was double that in Uri.
On February 26, a security forces convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber driving a Maruti Suzuki Eeco van. Forty personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, or CRPF, were killed.
The terrorist - a local whom reports identified as Adil Ahmad Dir - also died.
READ | What Happened At Balakot? Unseen Satellite Pics May Prove India's Case
Once again India pointed to proof of Pakistan's involvement - the attack itself was carried out by the Jaish group - and once again Islamabad denied any connection to the terror strike.
This time, 13 days after the attack, a dozen Air Force Mirage fighter jets, streaked around 20km past the LoC, into Pakistan's territory, to target Jaish training camps in Balakot.
The IAF's MIrage 2000 bombed a Jaish terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot in February 2019.
The entire operation lasted less than 20 minutes.
The target was six buildings in the Jaish terror base.
NDTV later established that Spice 2000 'glide bombs' were used and hit five separate structures along a ridge-line to the west of Bisian in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Francesca Marino, an independent journalist, who has reported extensively in Pakistan, later said eyewitnesses claimed 35 bodies were transported out of the site by ambulances.
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