The North News
New Delhi/Chandigarh, May 8
India has inflicted again heavy damage on Pakistan’s air defence infrastructure in a series of precision strikes carried out in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack, according to Indian government sources. Key Pakistani air defence units stationed in Sialkot and Lahore were hit in the early hours of Thursday, rendering Chinese-supplied HQ-9 missile systems inoperative and leaving sections of Lahore’s military grid vulnerable, Indian defence ministry officials said.
Simultaneously, Indian air defence systems reportedly neutralised 15 attempted drone strikes originating from across the Pakistan. The coordinated Pakistani drone operations were intercepted over multiple Indian locations, officials said, though no casualties or infrastructure damage was reported.
In an official statement, the government said that on the night of May 7 and 8, Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India including #Awantipura, #Srinagar, #Jammu, #Pathankot, #Amritsar, #Kapurthala, #Jalandhar, #Ludhiana, #Adampur, #Bhatinda, #Chandigarh, #Nal, #Phalodi, #Uttarlai, and #Bhuj, using drones and missiles. These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS Grid and Air Defence systems. The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks.
“Today morning Indian Armed Forces targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. Indian response has been in the same domain with same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised,” the government further said.
The military retaliation forms part of Operation Sindoor, a classified cross-border mission launched after the 22 April terror strike in Pahalgam that left 26 people dead, including a Nepali tourist. The attack, the deadliest since the 2008 Mumbai carnage, has been attributed to Pakistan-based militant outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
At an all-party meeting convened in New Delhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh confirmed that Operation Sindoor was ongoing and warned of a “decisive response” should further provocations occur. Singh emphasised that India had chosen a “restrained and responsible” path so far.
Senior cabinet members including Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, JP Nadda, and Chirag Paswan attended the briefing, which was aimed at building political consensus amid a volatile security landscape.
According to officials, nine targets across Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir were hit between 1.04am and 1.30am on Wednesday using loitering munitions and precision-guided weaponry. Notably, the strikes were launched from within Indian territory, underscoring what officials described as a “defensive but firm” posture.
India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri, flanked by top military officials Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, said the operation conformed to international norms of self-defence. He accused Islamabad of “wilful inaction” in dismantling terror networks despite repeated alerts and evidence submissions to the United Nations.
“This was not just a terror strike—it was a deliberate attempt to unravel the fragile peace and target the growing economic stability in Jammu and Kashmir,” Misri said, highlighting the region’s record-breaking tourist footfall of 23 million visitors in 2024.
Misri also noted that The Resistance Front (TRF), a group India links to LeT, claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam killings via affiliated Telegram and X accounts. India has shared its findings with the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee, yet Misri accused Pakistan of attempting to erase references to TRF from international documentation.
Forensic evidence suggests that victims were executed at close range, with several shot in front of family members—details that have amplified calls within India for more assertive action.
