NEW DELHI: Indian Army fired as many as 30,000 artillery and mortar shells as well as over3 lakh rounds of small arms across the Line of Control in response to Pakistan’s ceasefire violations during the May 7-10 hostilities, Northern Command chief Lt-General Pratik Sharma said on Saturday.”For every round fired by Pakistan (after IAF and Army conducted precision strikes against nine terror hubs in Pakistan and POK on May 7), we retaliated with a minimum of three to four rounds,”Lt-Gen Sharma said, while blaming Pakistan army chief Asim Munir for “directly inciting” terrorists and his forces before the Pahalgam terror massacre on April 22, which in turn led India to launch Operation Sindoor. IAF vice chief Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, speaking at the same NDTV summit, reiterated that less than 50 air-launched weapons fired by India at airbases and radar sites in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor compelled the western adversary to sue for peace and a ceasefire.”We hit them so hard that by mid-day (on May 10) they wanted to talk. Key takeaway for us, that in less than 50 weapons, we were able to achieve conflict elimination… It is very easy to start a war, but not easy enough to end it,” Air Marshal Tiwari said, armed with videos and satellite imagery to showcase the damage to terror and military infrastructure caused in Pakistan.IAF had deployed Sukhoi-30MKI, Rafale and Mirage-2000 fighters to launch BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles as well as Crystal Maze-2, Rampage and Scalp missiles for the calibrated pinpoint strikes on the Pakistani airbases and radar sites, a few of them close to nuclear facilities as well as command and control structures, as reported by TOI earlier. Both the officers said the political directives were clear about undertaking punitive strikes with minimum collateral damage, catering for escalation and creating a deterrence in Pakistan army’s mind, and complete operational freedom was given to the armed forces for the same.Lt-Gen Sharma further said that the Pahalgam massacre came soon after Munir, in a “provocative speech” on April 16, claimed Kashmir was Pakistan’s “jugular vein” while invoking the two-nation theory. “This was direct incitement to not only the terrorists but also the Pak army… Despite four defeats in war, the Pak army continues to be a revisionist army,” he said.
