‘If India backs down, we will wrap up’, Pakistan Defence minister responds to Operation Sindoor

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif reacted after Indian armed forces’ ‘Operation Sindoor’ early on Wednesday.

“We have been saying that we never initiate anything hostile against India, but if India attacks, we respond. If India backs down, we will wrap up. But if we are under fire, we must respond and define ourselves,” Defence Minister Asif said on Bloomberg TV.

He also said that he is not aware of any contact between India and Pakistan after India’s Operation Sindoor strike.

A post-midnight ‘Operation Sindoor’ has struck at the heart of Pakistan-based terror infrastructure, targeting well-known training camps in Muridke and Bahawalpur in a joint operation conducted by the Indian Army, Air Force, and Navy. 

Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of Wednesday and lasted just 25 minutes. Between 1.05 am and 1.30 am, Indian forces unleashed 24 missiles that precisely hit nine terror facilities across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), killing an estimated 70 terrorists.

Talking to the media on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Vikram Misri said that India’s response to the Pahalgam attacks was “measured, calibrated and non-escalatory”.

He said that Indian strikes were meant to dismantle and decimate terror infrastructure across the border, and there was no collateral damage in the precision strikes.

As per reports, counter-strike left more than 70 terrorists injured across the nine target locations – Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bahawalpur, Rawalakot, Chakswari, Bhimber, Neelum Valley, Jhelum, and Chakwal.