Operation Sindoor was not an overnight decision but a measured response to years of cross-border terrorism, Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai said on Tuesday.
“It’s in the late 80s that this problem started in Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, we’ve had more than 28,000 terror incidents. Since the 90s, more than 100,000 people from the minorities have been compelled to move out — a migration of over 60,000 families. Fifteen thousand innocent civilians and more than 3,000 security personnel have been killed,” Ghai said during a media briefing.
He said the “source of the problem is very clear” and recalled a pattern of escalating attacks over the decades. “It is not as if Operation Sindoor happened overnight. If you take your mind back to the attack on our Parliament in 2001, we were compelled to carry out a mobilisation on our borders. We remained there for almost a year. Yet, a wiser sense prevailed, and we didn’t take matters forward,” he said.
Ghai cited subsequent attacks to underline the need for decisive action. “In 2016, some of our security personnel were barbarically ambushed, their tents set on fire, and we then resorted to an action that was yet in the vicinity of the LoC. In 2019, we carried out a precision strike across the LoC and restricted it to that. But this time, it was the intensity and magnitude of the events that took place,” he added.
Referring to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Ghai said terrorists “sponsored from across the LoC” had killed 26 tourists after identifying them by their community.
“They shot them in cold blood in front of their families and loved ones. Initially, the Kashmir Resistance Front claimed the attack, calling it ‘glory’. But when they realised matters had gone beyond their control, they withdrew their claim,” he said.
“Everybody knew a response was inevitable. But we took our time,” Ghai said, noting that the Chief of Army Staff had granted the armed forces “complete flexibility” to plan and execute operations.
Between April 22 and the night of May 6–7, the Army carried out a series of precision strikes prioritising targets, deploying precautionary measures along the border, and coordinating with multiple government agencies.
“The final selection of targets was made from a large number that we scrutinised. While this was happening, there was also a harmonised and proactive information warfare campaign unfolding,” he said.
Lt Gen Ghai emphasised that Operation Sindoor represented not just a tactical response but a calibrated assertion of India’s resolve. “It was about intensity and magnitude,” he said.