Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday detailed a timeline of how India planned a retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam attack, revealing that the armed forces were given a “free hand” the very next day.
The Army chief said that a meeting was convened on April 23, and that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “enough is enough”.
“All three chiefs were very clear that something had to be done. The free hand was given, ‘you decide what is to be done.’ That is the kind of confidence, political direction and political clarity we saw for the first time…” the Army chief said.
The top Army official was talking about the launch of Operation Sindoor, the military move against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to avenge the Pahalgam attack.
He said that the political clarity given by the government to the tri-services helped boost morale, and “helped our army commander-in-chiefs to be on the ground and act as per their wisdom”.
Two days after the meeting, a plan was formulated on how would the terror targets be hit, and seven of the nine targeted later was zeroed down. “On the 25th, we visited the Northern Command, where we thought, planned, conceptualised and executed the seven targets out of the nine that were destroyed, and a lot of terrorists were killed,” the Army chief said.
Further talking about the timeline of the steps taken, the Army chief said the first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the Pahalgam attack took place on April 29.
“It is important that how a small name Op Sindoor connects the whole nation… That is something which galvanised the whole nation… That is the reason the whole nation was saying why have you stopped? That question was being asked and it has been amply answered,” he said.
The Army chief’s remarks hours after Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh revealed that India downed five Pakistani fighter jets, and one large Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) or early warning aircraft, during Operation Sindoor.
Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, a fortnight after the April 22 Pahalgam attack, and more than 100 terrorists were killed in Pakistan and POK during the operation.