IAF Air Strike on Pakistan Officially Confirmed by India

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) conducted at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence regarding the reports that Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and returned after doing a surgical strike in Pakistan.

The meeting chaired by PM Modi, was attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and other government officials.

The meeting comes after Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asif Ghafoor confirmed in a tweet that the IAF planes dropped the payload near Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before leaving in haste as the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) scrambled its war planes. The alleged incident took place in the Muzaffarabad sector, claimed Radio Pakistan.

Tuesday’s development follows a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, on February 14 that killed 40 troopers. The attack was claimed by Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and prompted a spike in tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.