Operation Sindoor A Message To Pakistan; India Won't Tolerate Terrorism: Rajnath Singh

Operation Sindoor was India's warning to Pakistan that any future terrorist attacks on Indian soil will have serious repurcussions, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday while addressing troops of the Northern Command Army on International Day of Yoga.

"Operation Sindoor is not over yet. Through this operation, we have told Pakistan that continuing terrorism against India will not be tolerated and the response will get from bad to worse," said Singh. Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi was also part of the session and standing by the Defence Minister's side during the address.

Singh added Operation Sindoor let Pakistan know that its "thousand cuts" policy against India will not succeed. He was speaking Udhampur where he has been on a two-day visit since Friday, This is the Defence Minister's second visit to Jammu and Kashmir post-Operation Sindoor. He visited Kashmir on May 15, days after India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop military actions against each other.

Under Operation Sindoor, Indian armed forces struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the intervening night of May 6 and 7 in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead.

"Operation Sindoor was not just a reaction to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, it was a natural progression of the 2016 surgical strike and the 2019 (Balakot) airstrike. We conveyed to Pakistan that its policy of a thousand cuts against India will not succeed.

"Any terror attack on Indian soil will come at a great cost to Pakistan. India is ready to take any kind of action against terrorism," Singh said.

As part of Operation Sindoor, he said, the Indian armed forces used precision strikes to destroy terrorists' strongholds across the LoC.

 "We could have easily destroyed other targets but we did not do that. We showed restraint," the defence minister said, attributing it to yoga, which he underlined helps overcome anger, makes one physically and mentally strong, and controls power.

Singh said the Pahalgam attack, which was planned across the border, was not just another terrorist incident but was aimed at disturbing India's social and communal unity.

"We not only foiled their plans but also took retaliatory action that forced Pakistan to kneel and only then did we halt Operation Sindoor," he said.

(with inputs from PTI)