9 targets ‘prudent to engage': Deputy Army Chief's 5 big remarks on Operation Sindoor

Hindustan Times

a day ago

Nearly two months after India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh has said that the decision to strike the nine targets was taken in the last hour before the operation started. Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh(ANI)
The top Army officer said that India had narrowed down 21 targets, of which nine were considered 'prudent to engage', and were finalised in the last hour.
He was addressing an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Here are five big remarks by him:
Lessons from Op Sindoor: "The strategic messaging by leadership was unambiguous. There is no scope of absorbing the pain the way we did a few years ago...An important consideration was that we should always be at the top of the escalation ladder. When we reach a military objective, we should try and put a stop to it."
Why Pakistan wanted ceasefire: 'There was a punch ready. Pakistan realised that in case that hidden punch comes through, they would be in a very bad condition. This is why they asked for a ceasefire.'
Selection of nine targets: "The planning and selection of targets was based on a lot of data that was collected using technology and human intelligence. So a total of 21 targets were actually identified, out of which nine targets we thought would be prudent to engage... It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged."
India's 'masterly stroke': "War is easy to initiate, but it's very difficult to control. So I would say that was a very masterly stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time".
China, Turkey's support to Pakistan: "Firstly, one border, two adversaries. Pakistan was a front face. We had China providing all possible support, and it's no surprise because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese. So, it's no surprise... China perhaps has seen is that he's able to test his weapons against various other weapon systems that are there. It's like a live lab which is available to it."
Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7, a fortnight after 26 civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in a deadly terror attack.
Over 100 terrorists were killed as India targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and POK.