"Only the beginning; a big salute to Indian military": Former Defence Minister AK Antony on Op Sindoor

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 7: Former Defence Minister and senior Congress leader AK Antony on Wednesday hailed the Indian Armed Forces for their Operation Sindoor that struck the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.
"A big salute to the Indian military. I am proud of them," Antony told reporters here. He said that a military action targeting the terrorist sites in Pakistan is the need of the hour.
"This action is the need of the hour. Pakistan-sponsored terrorists mercilessly killed tourists in Pahalgam. This is the natural reaction to those actions. I think this is only the beginning. The end, I leave it to the military. The government has also left details (of the military operation) to the military," he said.
The former Defence Minister said that now is the time for the whole country to unite behind the armed forces and the government.
"This is not a time for introspection, postmortem. Let us unite behind the Indian military and support the Indian government in all its actions against the terrorists," he said.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri along with Col Sophia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh on Wednesday briefed the media about the Operation Sindoor.
The Foreign Secretary said that the attack on Pahalgam was driven by an objective of undermining the return of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.
"The attack in Pahalgam was marked with extreme barbarity, with the victims mostly killed with head shots at close range and in front of their family...the family members were deliberately traumatised through the manner of killing, accompanied by the exhortation that they should take back the message. The attack was clearly driven by the objective of undermining normalcy returning to Kashmir," he said.
Vikram Misri said that Indian intelligence agencies have been monitoring terrorist activities and raised concerns regarding more terrorist attacks in India.
"Our intelligence indicated that further attacks against India are impending. Thus, compulsion, both to deter and prevent and hence earlier this morning, India exercised its right to respond to deter such more cross-border terrorism... Our actions were measured and non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible. They focused on dismantling terrorists' infrastructure," he said.
On Wednesday morning, the Indian Armed Forces launched strikes on nine locations inside Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan. These included Bahawalpur, Muridke, and Sialkot, and five in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
The Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force jointly carried out the operation, mobilising assets and troops. The strikes on all nine targets were successful. The Indian forces selected the locations to target top Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leaders involved in sponsoring terrorist activities in India. (ANI)