(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
All of us,
every single man in that room,
every single man that was firing those weapons,
every single commander that was sitting in an operation room,
monitoring that operation had been seething,
seething with anger.
At the manner in which innocent lives were snuffed out.
To me, it was very shocking and it was also something
which gives you that resolve to hit back.
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.
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)
The Prime Minister said we will go after them.
Whether on the ground, in the sky, or deep underground,
wherever they are.
We will not forgive.
Time has come.
Time to deliver.
Take a deep breath.
Have confidence that all preparations you have done is best
and nothing more is to be done.
And this is the time to prove yourself, prove your capability.
And we will unfold it like a good movie
as far as this entire delivery of punitive strike is concerned.
I was pretty confident of my own Air Force's capabilities.
The entire nation's hope rested on us.
We were to avenge these killings and it was on our shoulders.
I was part of a strike package wherein we went and struck Muridke.
I was given an opportunity
which for me like any other soldier was a matter of huge pride.
I was part of a package that is going to strike Bahawalpur.
Every guy wearing that uniform
wants that one opportunity in his life
to do something that actually matters.
Once you have done your planning,
once you have given your orders,
the execution has to be left to the last man.
You have to have that faith in him
that whatever decisions he will take at that time
or she will take will be the right decision.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
We returned short of midnight and went for our individual sorties.
The aircraft were already ready, prepared for us.
We walked to the aircraft and that is the time
you actually speak to that aircraft.
For the next two to three hours that is going to be the place
where you will probably come back alive,
not come back alive or probably you are going to change history.
Finally I shut the canopy and I waved off my chalk.
The kick that you get when you release the brakes
at the take-off roll,
it pushes you back into your seat.
So that feeling of you are actually going to take off
for a mission that critical is a different feeling altogether.
It is akin to carrying that tricolour with you in the cockpit
and doing something that not only you or your parents are proud of
but the entire nation is proud of.
(FIGHTER JET TAKES OFF)
Me and my team, we descended to ultra low levels
and we had some clouding at medium levels,
some clouding at low levels and we were all flying below the clouds.
When it was just five minutes to go,
we were quite concentrated and very focused.
I had two phones in my ears,
one connected to GOC-15 corps, other connected to GOC-16 corps.
The time I mentioned 0105,
that is the time when people had to go.
There is a procedure in the Army where we synchronise our watches.
Those watches had been synchronised across all commands.
So everybody had the same time on their systems.
At 0105, no orders were required.
And like clockwork precision,
the commencement of Operation Sindoor started at 0105.
My boys sprung into action
and our guns started thundering onto the targets.
Then nothing stopped us and we were no holds barred.
We had multiple aerial assets
launching from the same location
and brought onto the target in time and altitude as per the plan.
A number of loiter munition were fired
and we were counting it,
we were coordinating it at a particular cycle.
We hit them exactly where we wanted to hit.
I could hear DGMO saying first hit, second hit,
third hit, fourth hit and everything he was just saying
as if it was going like a clock precision.
Sitting in that ops room,
we were all very aware that we will execute it.
We will execute these missions with full safety to our people.
That we will bring back each and every aircraft
and each and every pilot.
So there was that rush and there was excitement.
We have engaged into our final attack mode
and we have continued towards our target of Bahawalpur.
That is the time I have pressed the trigger
and I saw the ammunition flying into the air.
Alongside my ammunition there were other ammunitions
that were going towards Bahawalpur.
That is the time when we activated
and then we went into full-fledged war mode I would say.
We had kept a code word,
a code word wherein if you have done a successful strike,
you will say that code word.
You actually heard code words of everyone.
So the moment you hear everyone's code word,
you know that everyone struck Pakistan successfully.
So having struck the targets the way we were intending to,
we were pretty confident that we have achieved our objectives.
It is the first time actually we hit targets like Bahawalpur
which was quite deep inside.
We have done it very successfully,
provided you know evidence of our capabilities.
So when I got this confirmation that all missions have gone as planned,
that was a good feeling in terms of having 100% mission success.
That is possibly one of my most satisfying professional moments
because every single target was hit through the roof.
That was the precision that was achieved.
It was a huge emotion which you know was there, a sense of satisfaction.
For that very fraction, it was there in my heart and in my feeling.
After the successful strike,
we had achieved our politico-military aim.
Once we achieved that aim,
obviously there was satisfaction amongst all of us
that we have done what we wanted.
Once we hit them,
there was a sense of justice,
justice for the nation
and the families of the terror victims.
We had decided the objective of the operation
as destruction of the enemy camps,
particularly those who had been responsible for the Pahalgam attack.
That has been achieved.
We had the intention of conveying a message
to the terrorists and to their mentors.
Even if it is anywhere in Pakistan,
if the terrorists are hiding there or finding shelter there,
we will hit them.
We wanted Pakistan Army to realize
that this support to terrorism
or inability to take effective action against the terrorists
is something which is not tolerable to us.
I quickly came outside.
I gave a call to Harsh and told him to tweet it.
As I was about to upload the tweet,
I realised that I would be the first person
to announce it to the world.
Actually, we had tears in our eyes when we saw that.
And it meant more to me
because I had received the call from Himanshi that day.
You cannot bring those 26 people back.
Those lives cannot be the same again.
There are deep scars that it will carry.
(EMOTIONAL MUSIC)
Suddenly, from watching history in action,
I realised the enormity of the task that lay ahead.
The troops on the ground had done their job.
Now, the responsibility lay on us to be able to showcase it to the world.
The moment I got to my office,
I wanted to check as to how the world was reacting.
I could see the comments coming from all across
that the Indian Army tweeting justice is served
means somebody's nightmare is going to come true in Pakistan.
By the time the first bombs went,
within 15 minutes or so,
we could see aircraft getting airborne from the other side.
They were painting on our radars.
After hitting Muridke, we had retaliation from the adversary side.
We had different counter-measuring systems.
They were deployed.
We have other beyond visual range tactics that are carried out.
I would say that they were too slow to react.
And all aircrafts had returned after the mission successfully.
Very soon, not only our live feeds
which we captured as these vectors hit the targets,
but even our sources across started sending videos
from the vicinity of these targets.
Pakistani social media
and Pakistani people actually acted as
a source for battle damage assessment.
People were filming it and they were running away
or they were talking very loudly about
waha maardiya ye kar diya
somebody saying markaz ko maar diya,
all those bytes or sounds you could hear.
Pakistan always gets away with murder lightly
has been my stand and it needed to be sent a message
which was stronger than ever before.
Our initial assessment was that we had killed more than 100 terrorists.
At least 6 to 10 of them were high value targets
which we had been wanting to eliminate for a while.
We have got a zero tolerance for that.
This isn't a game of kabaddi.
That this is the line if you cross that you are safe.
You are not safe,
wherever you are and whatever time it takes
and whatever sacrifice and risk it takes,
we will take the revenge.
Maybe half an hour after the targets had been completely engaged,
we thought it prudent that we will inform the Pakistan DGMO
that we have engaged these targets.
Because we have had an incident,
we have hit the perpetrators of terror.
This is our concept and this is our rationale.
Should we want to discuss this, we were open to doing that.
We got a message back from him saying that
this communication should have been done before we engaged the targets.
And now the DGMOs will only speak once the Pakistanis have responded.
So we knew that things are not yet over and we were prepared.
We were ready to take on anything whatever comes from their side.
There was no time for me to absorb
that this is what entire command has been able to achieve.
We had already switched into dealing with the next situation
and which was going to be very intense.
We were ready and our fingers were on the trigger.
The moment they started on the line of control,
we went at them hammer and tongs.
Everywhere, all across, entire LoC,
right from Tangdar, Kupwara, Uri,
Rampur sector, Poonch sector, Mendher,
Rajouri, right up to Sundarbani sector, the entire LC was activated.
And I really wanted each and every one of us,
every soldier of mine,
for one shot coming from Pakistan, give him at least five back.
For every sector, we were delivering the fire in a manner it was planned.
Each and every firing of my gun is delivering a punitive assault.
Now is the time, the people who have supported the terror,
they are the ones who have to be targeted.
And with that kind of a planning,
we just took off.
There was a duel happening on the line of control
and the rest, as they say, is history.
Within the next 15-20 minutes,
I think there were at least
40-50 aircrafts on the air on both sides.
We were holding guard in the air,
making sure that none of their aircraft would come this side.
Even come to the range where they could drop a weapon
remaining on their side.
And of course, we had launched certain number of
surface-to-air long-range weapon systems,
which we are sure caused some losses on the other side.
I think they didn't want to come any closer
and they decided after a couple of hours
that we will keep our aircrafts down.
Whilst all this was happening,
the Maritime domain was not sitting idle.
We were putting a lot of pressure.
We had insured that no Pakistani military surveillance plane
came anywhere near close to this carrier battle group,
because they knew that if they come,
our integral air launched from the aircraft carrier
will take them down.
The presence of carrier battle group,
ensured that the Pakistani forces remain either in their harbors,
or very close to their coast.
All this while, we only had a couple of hours
to collate the entire evidence and put it out for the world to see.
A press conference was going to be held early next morning.
One by one, we started going through the entire data from each feed.
We were running against time,
speed was of essence,
but so was accuracy because the credibility of India was at stake.
The joint press briefing on the 7th
by our Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri
Earlier this morning as you would be aware,
India exercised its right to respond
and preempt as well as deterred more such cross border attacks.
From the armed forces, we were represented by two women officers.
And it conveyed two important messages
that the women of India will not be deterred
by this cowardly kind of attacks,
and the social and emotional fabric of India will remain unaffected
even by such kind of challenges.
On the morning of 7th and 8th May,
the Pakistanis conducted funerals of some of the terrorist leaders.
The Pakistani senior military leadership
also attended those funerals.
So India said look here is the proof
and the Pakistani state and the army is protecting
the terrorist leadership.
As the midnight approached,
the next two to three hours was a gruelling battle.
The artillery opened,
the mortars opened,
the infantry posts opened.
Every life has a purpose and what more beautiful purpose can be.
When you're standing there to deliver,
the response of the Nation.
We have earmarked certain posts,
enemy posts for punitive punishments.
And I told the brigade commanders take one EPPP target,
one by one begin sorting them out.
The procedure is so punitive
that the enemy post is Degraded good about 40 to 50 percent.
After that, it cannot stand up.
Because the pressure on Park Post was so heavy,
that in order to relieve the pressure,
he had to resort to targeting my civilians,
targeting the religious infrastructure.
Almost 500 villages all along the L.C.
were getting targeted.
They hit Gurudwaras, temples.
So it was really sad,
that when we hit terror,
they hit civilians.
So you can well imagine,
as to what are the ethics,
that this army or this country follows.
I really wanted to get that pressure off my civilians.
I thereafter switched my plan in a manner,
that all these guns which are targeting the civil population
had to be silenced.
I used to have my weapon locating radar absolutely ready.
Who is to be hunting for these locations from where,
he fired on to my gun position.
They were ready and loaded.
So before they could shoot and scoot,
these guns, they used to fire on those guns.
And we have caused immense casualties to the Pakistanis
at their own gun positions.
When you are firing on the LoC., you are like communicating through fire.
Is he feeling the pressure or he is not feeling the pressure?
You come to know through the intensity of fire.
Sure enough within few hours, we were able to control this fire.
And he had to roll back his firing.
Once anything starts,
we are willing to go as far as it is necessary
for a nation to preserve its sovereignty,
and there's no limits on that.
We fight till the last drop of the blood.
While the duels on the line of control continued,
the Pakistanis then also started flying drones into Indian territory.
Till 7th May,
they had approximately 30 flights coming from 2 countries,
which supported them openly.
They were carrying the drones and YIHA class of heavy drones,
which they used against us.
We were prepared for it.
We eliminated everything that they threw at us.
You know the famous cliche, Dil Mange More.
I think the air defence gunners were waiting for.
Their impact of drones was more of a nuisance value.
Many of their kamikaze drones were even taken on by our SAGW systems.
We launched some specialised UAVs,
which were basically targeting their radar and SAM systems.
These were the ones which took out many of their radars
and you know the weapon systems.
Pasroor, Chunian, there was Lahore,
Nayachor in the south-west,
and many such places near Karachi, Malir, Cantt.
So these were the places where
certain number of radar systems were there
and we had targeted them.
It is the air defence systems of the Indian Army
and the Indian Air Force that worked together and in sync.
9th evening, the US Vice President J.D. Vance
called Prime Minister Modi.
He said that we have got information and intelligence
that Pakistan is going to launch a massive attack on India tonight.
So the Prime Minister said, please tell them that our attack
would be thrice the intensity of their attack.
Waha se goli, yaha se gola.
We were informed that Pakistan is planning to launch an operation,
so-called Bunyal-al-Marsus,
to teach India a lesson
and that operation is going to last for about 48 hours.
I am not given to being very impressed by either names
that the Pakistan Army may give to their operations
or the dramatic manner in which they do that.
Rhetorics in war, we don't take much.
In any conflict situation,
these brave words are said with a certain objective in mind.
That is to convince your own people, to keep the brave face.
You make these, very high-sounding statements and others.
We had red-teamed and war-gamed various levels,
and therefore we were prepared at all times
for it to continue to escalate even to a full-blown war.
From about around midnight,
they started launching aircraft and they launched strikes
from various places, from Srinagar down to Bhuj.
In various places, we had reports of long-range weapons being fired.
Though they sent a lot of missiles,
neither their intelligence was right.
They were far away from their, the, the intended targets.
Only one odd missile fell anywhere close to where it caused damage.
One was at Udhampur,
where it hit one of our hospitals at the base.
At about 1:30 or 1:45,
one high-speed missile was launched by Pakistan,
aimed at Delhi,
which was intercepted at Sirsa in Haryana.
That was the signal for India to launch its final retaliatory attack.
This is the time I had given the orders
to move all my long-range vectors
and also the operational reserves to their places.
It was decided that India will not go down to such kind of threats.
We are going to respond heavily on to Pakistan.
And if there is an escalation to this particular conflict, so be it.
And this time, the full responsibility was given
to the Air Force to launch the BrahMos cruise missiles
in four different waves.
BrahMos is one of those which has very high speed of attack.
The chances of it getting intercepted are less.
The kind of damage it creates
is much more than any other smaller-speed weapon.
And the best part was it's a homegrown weapon,
design and development in India weapon.
So, they had selected 11 Pakistani airfields for the attacks.
So, we took a decision that this is the time
we need to now enhance and up the ante.
So, that night,
that is 10th early morning,
before they could strike,
we have struck their major airfields,
radar sites, command and control centres.
So, we took out Rafiki, Sukkur,
Rahim Yar Khan
and of course, the Noor Khan Air Base.
There is a fire in Noor Khan Base.
There's been an attack on Noor Khan base.
And subsequently, in the second wave,
we launched strikes against the main bases,
Sargodha, Bholari and Jacobabad.
And caused substantial damage to all the three places.
There was a lot of damage that was caused to the runways,
to the hangar
and to the aircraft that were parked on the ground.
The intent was to keep it calibrated, to keep it measured.
And drive home a message that look,
we can hit you at will and you have no answer to it.
We engaged him on a front of almost 1200 kilometres,
almost 200 kilometres deep inside his territory.
Things were really happening the way we wanted them to happen.
Whatever we were touching was turning gold.
All our weapons were reaching the correct place.
On the morning of 10th,
after the second wave of attack,
probably they got the message that things are getting more serious
and they had no response to the kind of targeting that we are doing.
I think Pakistan has realised,
based on their information network
which has been provided to them by various countries,
That there could be a strike from sea,
which will be very damaging.
So when they realised, now Navy is also going to attack
and Brahmos have also been lined up along with the artillery,
they knew now next night is going to be a very dangerous one,
along with the Air Force, what it had already done.
By 8 o'clock in the morning on 10th,
the Pakistanis were desperately trying to reach
the Indian establishment
and Asim Munir was trying to reach Marco Rubio,
who in turn called External Affairs Minister
at 10 in the morning apparently,
saying the Pakistanis want to stop,
they want to have a ceasefire.
So, Jai Shankar's message was that we will not
accept any mediation from anyone.
So, the message given to Marco Rubio was that
please ask the Pakistani Director General of Military Operations
to call Indian DGMO,
which is the only acceptable channel of communication.
Approximately at about 9 o'clock or thereabouts in the morning,
I got a message from the Pakistan DGMO.
The message said that the Pakistan DGMO wanted to communicate with me,
his Indian counterpart.
And eventually, it was decided
that we would speak to them at some time during the day,
maybe 2 hours after we received the message.
I got a call from the Ministry of External Affairs,
informing us that the Pakistanis were frantically trying to call,
but nobody is answering.
Murphy's Law also played a role,
that there was a little snag in the hotline.
We got the line rectified,
that maybe took an hour or so.
And by then, we had taken the decision
that there was no harm in hearing what the Pakistan DGMO had to say.
And I eventually spoke to him at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Usually, the person that asks for the call
is the one that speaks first.
So, General Kasif Abdullah, the Pakistan DGMO, started.
As per that tradition,
he referred to me as Sir, because the seniority is well established.
But it didn't take him much time
to cut straight to the fact that they wanted a ceasefire.
In fact, he suggested to me that,
Sir, having hit so many Brahmos missiles at us,
you should now be satisfied, and we can bring this to a stop.
So once they asked, and they repeatedly asked us
that, you've caused enough damage,
please call for a ceasefire.
We conceded to that request.
We were also very clear that is we don't have to linger it on.
We spoke at 3.30, and the conversation must have lasted
a little less than half an hour.
And we both agreed that starting 5.30 in the evening,
we would cease hostilities.
It was agreed between them
that both sides would stop all firing
and military actions on land and in the air and sea.
Well, it's an uneasy cessation of hostilities.
I don't refer to it as ceasefire at all.
And until and unless we get a complete assurance
that there is no support
or perpetration of terror acts from across the line of control
or the international boundary,
which we can clearly attribute to Pakistan,
Operation Sindoor will continue.
Message to the world is very clear.
India's generosity or India's, being more tolerant
should not be mistaken for its weakness.
India can take risks.
India can hit hard irrespective of the consequences.
Operation Sindoor has drawn a new line
in the fight against terrorism.
A new normal has been established.
Firstly, if there is a terrorist attack on India,
a strong response will be delivered.
We will go to all those places and carry out tough operations
from where the roots of terror grow.
Secondly,
any nuclear blackmail will not be tolerated by India.
Thirdly,
Governments supporting terrorism and
the masterminds behind it will be treated as one.
At the strategic level, I think,
when to stop a conflict is equally important.
It's easy to start a war.
It's very difficult to stop it.
When the ceasefire was announced,
for me and for all of us, there was a sense of achievement.
Long Live Mother India.
Each and every sailor,
each and every airman,
Long Live Mother India.
and each and every soldier,
they worked with huge commitment.
We are ready to sacrifice, go to any level to protect our people.
It is the youngsters in the field who have really done the job.
A large number of Indian operations room have one saying
plastered in the centre everywhere.
It says "war in my time".
And it was war then in my time.
I never understood the gravity of what those words mean.
I only want to assure our countrymen
that the Indian army, the Indian armed forces,
we will always be there for the nation when it needs us.
No conflict in future will be like the past one.
We need to prepare for it.
This is the new normal.
A notice to sail should be construted as a notice to combat.
We are a peace loving country.
We would like to live and let live.
But if Pakistan carries out any terror attack of this kind,
I can assure
that Pakistan will have to pay twice what they have paid this time.
The kind of beating they got during Op Sindoor,
I think they will remember it for a long time.
It was just a trailer.
When the Prime Minister says that the Operation Sindoor is alive,
his intention is the fight against terror
will only be over till the last terrorist is eliminated.
(MISSILE LAUNCHES)