I had during my time as corps commander flown over the place.
My daughter had also recently spoken about Baisaran.
It's a beautiful meadow
and it's very popular with tourists.
(SOMBER MUSIC)
I was the Director General of Military Operations
during Operation Sindoor.
The DGMO is the fulcrum
of all operational activity in the Indian Army.
A key person within Army Headquarters
to keep a 24/7-365 watch
on all operational activity happening on any border
or even within the country.
And he is then in a position to actually crystal gaze
and look ahead as to how operations will unfold.
It was a routine day.
The first call that I got was from the corps commander in Kashmir.
He told me that there was something happening in Baisaran.
Because you've been through incidents like that,
I knew the ring was different.
I knew that I had to walk up to the Chief of Army Staff and inform him.
I have been in uniform for 40 years plus.
So the decision making is concerned, it's part of my blood.
On that fateful day of 22nd April,
I was presiding over the Retiring Officer's Seminar.
I remember taking that short walk
from the Military Operations Directorate
to where the Veteran Officer's Seminar was being held.
So when I was giving the talk, I suddenly realized
General Ghai, my DGMO, entered the room.
He had a very serious face and he walked up to the podium,
put the hand on the mic and whispered,
Sir, there has been a terrorist attack.
I received a call from the helpline.
This lady was speaking on the other side.
She said, I am Himanshi.
And there was a lot of panic and anger
mixed kind of tone that she was showing.
She said that my husband has been shot.
Himanshi is the wife of late Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of Navy
who was there in Baisaran that day.
(SCREAMS)
(GUNSHOTS)
We had asked the unit which was nearby to go to the incident site
with the quick reaction teams that we have.
(SIREN WAILING)
So first one to react was my company commander.
I told him, just rush to the location.
Next five minutes, I was also out.
I was in communication with the CO who was moving in.
It was still 30 to 35 minutes away.
That was a little frustrating moment.
From Pahalgam reaching Baisaran, there is no metal road.
So you just have to walk.
It's a walk of somewhere around 30 to 40 minutes.
And whatever the chatter we were picking,
when we were climbing up by the porters and local guides,
they were saying it was a cold-blooded murder.
The ground situation was basically there were dead bodies all around.
It wasn't a normal terror attack.
In my opinion, it was a kind of an execution which was taking place
where victims were segregated,
they were taken apart,
sorted on the base of their religion
and mercilessly in cold blood executed
right in front of their families.
The first images and videos started trickling
from the first responders who had reached there.
In my life, I have never seen the kind of barbarity that was so gory.
These civilians had been killed in cold blood
with automatic weapons such as AK-47s.
Earlier attacks were indiscriminate.
They killed anybody who came in front of them.
Here they segregated Hindus and Muslims,
and killed Hindu men.
I don't express it.
I'm an emotional man at some level.
I really felt very bad.
I felt very sad that this young couple must have thought,
must have planned, packed their things,
will go to Pahalgam, come back,
and the wife is sitting, and they are telling,
KI JAKE MODI KO BOL DO, (Go tell Modi...)
JO KAR KAR SAKTA HAI KAR LE. (Do whatever you can)
So like I think all citizens of the country,
we were actually hit by the brutality of this attack.
I think it was most barbaric.
We will go after them.
Whether on the ground, in the sky,
or deep underground, wherever they are.
We will not forgive.
Any act of terror will be considered as an act of war.
If there is even escalation to this particular conflict, so be it.
And then we went into full-fledged war mode I would say.
Prime Minister told me that we should call it Operation Sindoor.
We were ready and our fingers were on the trigger.
And nothing stopped us and we were no holds barred.
All the officers and men were fully motivated.
(GUNSHOTS)
The entire nation's hope rested on us.
We will unfold it like a good movie.
So, the Prime Minister said,
waha se goli... (if they'll fire bullets...)
yaha se gola. (...we will drop bombs)
Fortnight before the Pahalgam attack,
Asim Munir was actually provoking kind of terrorist organizations
into attacking India or carrying out some terrorist attack.
During his speech to non-resident Pakistanis and investors,
he said that we are two different people;
we are not one people.
We have a different culture, we have a different tradition
and India and Pakistan have nothing in common
and we come from two different religions,
and a very provocative speech basically,
which was like a dog whistle
to the terrorist groups and the elements in ISI.
This was a very well planned, well thought out and deliberate attack
designed for two or three intentions or outcomes from that.
And they were one, create communal divide in India.
Two, hit the booming tourism economy in Jammu and Kashmir.
And three, by doing that
try and get more local recruits from Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Saudi Arabia on a visit.
He had left that morning.
And the attack actually simultaneously happened
as he was about to land in Riyadh.
The moment the Prime Minister landed,
somebody from the SPG
went up to him and whispered into his ear something.
So the Prime Minister vanished from public view.
When I went to the Prime Minister,
actually he had already known about it,
and I found him quite serious.
Normally he has got a lot of calm,
and under difficult circumstances, I have never seen him ruffled up.
But he said
YE BURA HUA HAI... (What has happened is terrible)
ISKA PRATIKAR KARNA PADEGA. (this cannot go unanswered).
We will have to take suitable and proportionate actions.
So he had his meeting with the Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
And immediately the Prime Minister and his delegation
headed back to Delhi.
Prime Minister returned.
Foreign Secretary had come to receive him.
Then at the airport itself we had a meeting.
First he wanted to know all the facts.
And then his first question to me is,
who has done it?
Who is responsible?
We should be very clear who the perpetrators are.
I wanted immediately,
thanks to our intelligence agencies,
I think they did a brilliant job,
and within a very short time,
we were able to arrive at the conclusion,
mainly because of the equipment that they had left at the site,
which was the communication equipment,
which carried the route that they had tracked,
also carried their communications with their mentors in Pakistan,
and also their communications amongst themselves.
So it was very clear that they were Pakistanis.
So, I thought that we must go for proactive deterrence.
And I could make out that the Prime Minister's mind
was also that we have got to go for a proactive deterrence.
90% of the fog was over with that.
After that, it's a question of what is that we can do.
On this matter, when you decide,
you first decide that what are the enemy's expectations from you.
So, my way of thinking has always been,
never do what the enemy expects you to do.
That is the element of surprise.
If you have to win, you have to take risks in life.
Without taking a risk, you will never win.
NSA called me very early in the morning.
He had just returned from Saudi Arabia
and he said that you know we need to plan things.
And by that time, honourable Raksha Mantri
had also called for a meeting.
So clearly the ball had been set rolling.
The most important meeting was held by the honourable Prime Minister
in which Raksha Mantri, NSA,
the three service chiefs and myself were present.
We met the PM when he called for a meeting
and he decided that this time, whatever we do,
it has to be big and impactful and it must teach them their lessons.
You know for any military man,
when the time comes and you know that
this is the time to prove our worth,
you suddenly start getting that adrenaline rush
and you start feeling, you know,
maybe this was the time you wore your uniform for.
Immediately, that evening
after the Cabinet Committee on Security meeting,
it was decided by India to scrap
the long-standing Indus Water Treaty of 1960.
Terror and talks,
cannot go together.
Terror and trade
cannot go hand in hand,
and water and blood
cannot flow together.
And withdrawing the Indus water treaty,
which had survived three wars
and had never been discussed or considered as an option
despite the fact that it was a one-sided treaty
completely in favour of Pakistan.
I say to the whole world.
India will identify, trace
and punish every terrorist and their backer.
We will pursue them
to the ends of the earth.
India s spirit will never be broken by terrorism.
Terrorism will not go unpunished.
Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.
The entire nation is firm in this resolve.
Everyone who believes in humanity is with us.
I thank the people of various countries
and their leaders who have stood with us in these times.
Honourable Prime Minister has made it very clear,
any act of terror will be considered as an act of war.
I flew down to the Western Naval Command Headquarters.
The Eastern Naval Command units which were combat ready,
they were just pushed out from Vishakhapatnam.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Then they joined on the Western seaboard
and they became a part of this force.
Within the 96 hours of that terrorist attack,
we had carried out a large number of weapon firings.
I called for a conference of
Vice-Chief, DGMO, DGMI and ADG STRATCOM.
What next? And what range?
These are the two things we wanted to discuss.
I had no doubt that we were in a situation
where we would have to respond differently from times gone by
and we would need to make sure that we responded in a manner
which very unambiguously gave out our intent
that we were not going to tolerate this or any form of terrorism.
Around 26th, we generally honed down
to various terrorist targets which we can neutralise.
What the Prime Minister wanted was,
it should not lead to any collateral damages to the civilian casualties.
Number two, we are not declaring a war against Pakistan.
Number three, we have got terrorists as the main culprits.
Especially in the initial few days selection of targets etc.
the accuracy of information
was provided by the intelligence agencies.
Largely done through the Office of National Security Advisor.
So objectives that were decided were terrorist camps,
nothing more, nothing less.
They came up with a rough list of about 34 targets.
The numbers were many but the important thing
to decide was that how many would be enough
to send a stern message across.
And I was an integral part of that engine room.
Which was planning this operation.
We were doing a daily 24-hour research
and evolving the intelligence that we had available on these targets.
They evolved a matrix,
tabulated the whole target list into ease of targeting,
line of sight, whether it is there,
how many people are there,
important people or important terrorist functionaries are there.
And they had a scale from 0 to 5 for different parameters.
After evaluating their success possibility,
after evaluating the deterrence effect
that the Prime Minister wanted,
after ensuring that it will not lead to any collateral damage,
after ensuring that the message is loud and clear to the terrorists,
as also their mentors and supporters.
Thereafter, we homed on to the 9 targets.
There were 5 targets in POJK
and 4 targets in Pakistan.
The NSA went with the targets and the intention to the Prime Minister
saying there are these risks of retaliation from Pakistan
because you are hitting the Pakistan-Punjab province
which was always seen or projected by Pakistan as a no-go area.
A red line, if crossed,
would invite nuclear retaliation or something catastrophic.
Now it's for you to sign off
whether we should do this or do something else.
And the Prime Minister apparently said give me 10 to 12 hours.
And so on 30th, the Prime Minister signed off on this plan.
I was again called in the evening by the Prime Minister.
He asked me "what is the name which has been given to the operation."
I replied that it is Tulip Garden as of now
because it has happened in valley.
He told me that we should call it Operation Sindhu.
I said, sir, that's a very good name
because the Indus Water Treaty has been frozen.
So it relates to that.
He said, no, it is Operation Sindoor.
KYUNKI UNHONE HUMARI MAHILON... (because they have widowed...)
KI MAANG KA SINDOOR UJADA HAI... (...our women,)
AUR HUME USKA BADLA LENA HAI. (...and we have to avenge it.)
Spontaneously came to my mind,
this will unite the complete of India
and this is the first time all the three services
will be having a common operational name.
We identified 9 targets finally.
Starting from the north, across the line of control,
Syedna Bilal,
Sawai Nala,
Kotli,
Gulpur,
Bhimber,
Mehmoona Joya,
Sarjal,
and of course, Bahawalpur
and Muridke.
These were all located at varying distances
from the line of control or the international boundary.
This was different.
You were taking the fight to the enemy.
Each building had to be studied in detail.
The composition of the building,
the construction of the building
was to be matched with the weaponry which we are going to use.
Then, depending on the distance at which they were located
and the weapon platform that was being utilized to eliminate those,
it was decided that seven of the targets
would be engaged by the Indian Army
and the remaining two at Bahawalpur and Muridke
would be engaged by the Indian Air Force.
Air power is something we look at, you know,
we will be likely the first responders.
And we were very sure about two things
that the damage we would like to cause should be enough
to, you know, leave no ambiguity.
The two targets we were given was Muridke
which is about 30 kilometers from the border closer to Lahore.
One was Bahawalpur
which is almost about 100 kilometers from the border.
Both targets were symbolically very important
because this is the fountainhead of terrorism.
Muridke was the headquarter of the LeT.
and Bahawalpur of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
So, it is like going into their house and hitting them.
And it is located within the city.
So, the challenge was firstly, to strike deep
and also to ensure that there is no collateral damage.
There are a lot of people, a lot of families
who were staying around them
because that's how the terrorists thrive.
I think they choose their places accordingly
so that they get this kind of first line of defense.
And since the targets were big,
that is why we decided together that Air Force will take on this target
because we had to have the requisite weight of attack
which Air Force could deliver at that distance
into the enemy territory with precision.
And then we set about putting our minds together to make the plan.
Some of us are born to be in crisis always.
I have dealt with multiple crises in these scenarios
being posted in Northern Command so many times.
Northern Command motto is that it's forever in combat
and you are always waiting for that adrenaline to be there flowing
all the time.
When this entire planning process was happening,
indication to me was there from the Chief
that whenever it happens you will be taking over Northern Army.
When this intense planning phase was on in the Army Headquarters
and in the corridors of Delhi,
I was fully integrated into that.
And I knew that I have to go.
I was waiting for MS Branch to quickly issue this posting order
in black and white so that I can just grab that order and fly off.
And I remember that particular day Chief had called everybody
in the MO Ops room
and I as Deputy Chief strat everything was happening in my mind.
I was waiting for that thing to happen
and suddenly somebody came from behind
"Sir, your posting order in black and white is already out."
I just got up from the chair and whatever conversation was happening
I could not even register what was happening.
I got up and I requested Chief Sir
can I be excused I want to take a flight within an hour,
and he said go.
(SIRENS WAILING)
When I reached Udhampur,
I had to take care of what is the targeting matrix
that if I have these seven camps to be targeted,
how exactly will I do it,
what are the vectors I will use
and also which are the areas within those targets
which should come what may the precision strike must go there.
I was to take over from first of May as the Vice Chief.
So when I came in here
of course some of the planning had already started
in terms of putting the forces up in the requisite places,
upping our air defence alert levels.
And I was to move out as AOC-in-C South Western Air Command.
I mean I hit the ground running I would say,
and I was good to go from the day I landed there.
So all that was required to be done was
give a call to every station,
and tell them to now keep the powder dry.
So the preparatory phase if I have to talk about,
one was not sure how many days will I get
because targeting had to happen,
one was not sure it was going to be within two days, within a day,
within three days, one was not very sure.
So in this preparatory phase each, and every minute
which was there with me I was utilizing it very judiciously.
I wanted to ensure that the plans on the LoC are in place
for all that entire steps of escalation I have my people in place
I have my weapon, ammunition all stocked up,
I had to cater for surprise.
People should not come to know that in what domain
India is going to respond.
There were rehearsals happening,
people were rehearsing on their platforms
or the vector
or any particular ammunition that was going to be utilized.
They were in the training areas,
they were on the field firing ranges.
They knew that they would at some point in time
be asked to get into action,
but they necessarily did not know
as to where exactly they would be firing.
I had selected each and every commander
for targeting of these camps.
I got them together we discussed that these are the targets,
this is the planning.
These are the vectors to be used within the target
which building, which area has to be struck, all that planning was done.
And from 1st of May onwards these rehearsals intensified.
Routine activities at unit level were underway
when I received the call from my commanding officer.
He was already in the operational area.
He asked me to move to command headquarters
and got an initial brief of an impending task:
battalion battle procedures were activated
and all special strike teams
they went on to carrying out their rehearsals.
In these kind of operations, terrain plays a major role.
So you need to study the terrain in that short time
and as the terrain we see here is mountainous.
So for the planning phase we did a lot of recce on and off the map.
Commanding officer of my regiment
he has called all the officers in his office,
and told that he has received the orders
and one of our subunit has to air mobilise to an unspecified location.
The moment we reached airfield it is near about 2400 hours.
Next day in the morning we landed at the valley.
We mobilised and reached our location
from where we have finally carried out our mission.
For the next 4-5 days we have rehearsed improved our drills,
and increasing our force protection measures.
All the directions were given for them to prepare.
Be ready.
There are very few people in the Air Force
who were aware of specific information.
The units which had to do the planning were informed.
So for that you need immense amount of planning
because carrying out a strike into another nation
is not a very easy job.
So I personally started planning missions.
I knew that whatever platform or whatever happens eventually
we will always have to plan a strike.
We have simulated targets
and we practice these missions regularly
in our routine training sorties.
So as a military aviator I think we had already started preparing
from our side.
Because we knew that it might be a possibility
that some operation might have to be conducted.
So we knew that once we carry out the neutralisation of targets
Pakistan will also respond and they will respond heavily.
And we had to take that into consideration
because I knew for sure that come what may,
the moment this retaliation starts it is going to start from the LoC.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
We had already war-gamed that
three, four levels beyond.
So we were prepared for that.
I also wanted to ensure that my air defence
and electronic warfare grid is also in place.
Just in case it's getting into drone warfare,
I should have my grid in place.
And for this I couldn't have done it on my own.
I'm the Director General of Army Air Defence.
The Army Air Defence looks after strategic and tactically important
installations in India.
The Air Force has something called the IACCS.
And the Army Air Defence has something called
the Akashteer system.
It's a totally indigenous system.
It's an outstanding control and reporting system.
It reports air threat and controls your weapon systems.
All our radars are networked into an integrated system.
And the weapons which are also networked with this radar,
they are also integrated into this entire network.
So it becomes like a giant mesh which covers the entire country.
The latency of the Akashteer system from the IACCS
to the weapon end is two to three milliseconds.
I mean that's the capability that we have.
Because an air threat manifests in 18, 20, 30, 40 seconds.
I knew that this air defence is going to play a huge role
in deterring Pakistan from undertaking
one aspect of the retaliation
which is dealing with the airspace.
And I also wanted to ensure that there should be some kind of
an escalation matrix also should be worked out
in such a manner that firstly we should be dominating
each and every ladder of escalation
and secondly at every ladder,
Pakistan must get an exit window in case he wants to take.
Pakistan carries out misinformation at industrial scale.
Denial, distortion, fabrication of facts
is something which they have honed over a period of time.
I came up with the idea that we require
credible real time visual imagery of the strikes taking place
and our quickly being able to put them out at the world stage
will destroy any scope for Pakistan to carry out
any kind of misinformation on that account.
The troops in ground will execute the task that has to be done,
and it will be left for us the information warriors to be able to
justify their actions to the world.
As part of our planning to be able to execute this in real time,
I had nominated one officer per live screen,
whose job was to record the exact time of impact
at that particular target.
While nobody was saying that it has to be done tomorrow or day after,
but in our minds, we knew that we had selected the targets,
we had put the wherewithal into place
we had carried out operational rehearsals,
now we needed to hone on to the time and the date.
To my people it was very clear that
every day they are getting is a day bonus,
keep preparing.
When the time comes you need only that much time
so they were quite confident, quite relaxed,
calm, composed and very clear.
So on 1st of May when I met Raksha Mantri
and thereafter he decided that it should be done
on 7th of May early morning
between 0100 hours to 0200 hours.
So my complete narrative was looking at
that we should have rehearsals on 6th, 8th, 10th and final go on 12th.
This way we were trying to make sure that nobody gets to know
that 7th is the date which has been chosen.
So surprise is a very big part of the whole game
while there is rhetoric also going on,
but they don't know what is going to happen
or what is the exact time,
what is the exact targets that have been chosen
that is the major surprise.
So it was not communicated to me on telephone that
listen Pratik this is the day or this is the time
when targeting had to be done.
So a high state of surprise was to be maintained,
I had to send an officer,
a brigadier level officer he went to Delhi.
Chief personally gave him a small paper.
He told him don't open it,
you go and hand it over to the Army Commander,
and he will open it by himself.
So 6th afternoon I got the time
I had to keep it close to my heart.
By the 6th morning,
it was clear to us that we were going to engage
the targets that night.
And we homed on to the time as 01:05 in the early hours of the morning,
Because that's the time when
the chances of you achieving surprise are the maximum.
Because if you were to do, it let's say during the day,
you might find the people in those terror camps that you are hitting
or they could be out,
they could well be training,
and as we were getting closer to the strike
the military operations directorate itself
was not aware that that was the night.
There was only one person there who was aware and that was me.
At a certain point in time after I had informed the army commanders,
I informed my own officers and staff
in the military operations directorate
that tonight was the night.
The exact indication came not more than 7 hours prior to when we hit.
In the afternoon our commanding officer
and flight commander had called us;
only the required number of people
that were supposed to be there were present.
We were told our targets,
the formation was decided instantly,
the package was selected and we were told to get on to mission planning.
So they were ready just waiting for a go ahead.
We let them know with just sufficient time
to execute those missions.
It is all live now,
there is no training anymore in that.
The mindset was very clear through and through
that yes we are going for the missions
and I think we have prepared ourselves mentally.
Fortunately Air force strains the way we fight.
The final day is final day nobody can take that away.
In the days leading up to the 6th and the 7th without exception,
I was in the military operations directorate
for very very long hours,
but on that particular day,
I made a conscious effort to leave the directorate
at about 7 in the evening,
to suggest to everybody that it was business as usual.
We didn't want anyone to get to know that today is the D-day.
In the evening at about 6 o'clock I told everybody
let's pack up, and only let's leave the duty officer here,
and we will get meet at about 10.30 or so.
And quietly at that time which was for me to go
I had asked for only one vehicle,
and I just quietly moved out.
Nobody in the house came to know
other than the guard who shouted Jai Hind.
At approximately 10 o'clock at night,
my daughter and son-in-law coincidentally
happened to walk into the house,
and when they found out that I was headed to work
they said we will drop you.
They dropped me at South Block.
I had planned my move out of Delhi that particular evening.
As for everybody else AP Singh was airborne
to go to some place in Baroda,
got into an aircraft but actually it never went to Baroda,
we did one local sortie
came back and landed nobody knew that chief had landed back.
I remember telling my household
that I have got some work I am going out so don't wait for me.
Obviously nobody knew where I was going.
Short of midnight I asked my ADC
to take out his personal car.
I used the rear gate which was never used by me.
So we took different routes to arrive at the operations room
and in the joint operations room all the service chiefs were present
and we could see whatever was happening live.
I think it was about 11.30 at night
when we started watching the leadership of the army,
the three services walking inside the operations room
that I suddenly realised that the strikes would take place today.
There were live feeds coming in on multiple screens
and we could clearly see the targets in each of these feeds.
It was a moment of great focus.
I realised that we were at a historic moment.
What was also extremely reassuring for me
was to see the calmness in each and every one of them.
From the junior most officer right up to the senior most leadership
they were all united in a sense of purpose.
In the entire northern command at that point of time
everybody was very sure that what they are expected to do,
how it has to be executed,
everything was in place.
Everybody was just waiting that when is the time to deliver.
At that point in time I was very confident
having spent very very long hours in the operation,
putting everything into place.
We had worked out all the contingencies.
So I felt that we had done enough for the operation to succeed.
But invariably,
before any important event
and this time was no exception,
I did have some butterflies in my stomach
and as I stood in front of a large number of screens,
I suddenly had the sense that what if the vectors don't hit,
what if these cameras
that are sending me these images were to have a snag,
what if everybody comes and sits down here
and there is no show.