Army destroys 4 PoK terror camps in retaliatory artillery strikes

The Army launched attacks after heavy Pakistani firing killed two Indian jawans and a civilian and injuring three others in Tangdhar in the intervening midnight of Saturday and Sunday, sources said. 

Army sources said four terror launch pads in Neelam valley, opposite the Kupwara sector, have been destroyed in the artillery strikes. 

The unprovoked firing invited a calibrated escalation from the Indian side in which terror launch pads and Pakistan Army posts giving incidental protection to these launch pads and certain gun positions were hit. 

He army said it retained the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing, in case the Pakistan Army continues to assist terror activities across the border.

The armed forces' last hit on terror launch pads was in February after the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror strike in Pulwama. On that occasion, the Air Force had targeted a Jaish camp in Pakistan's Balakot. In September 2016, the army had carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control.

By hitting the positions of Pakistani artillery positions, a "clear message was sent that their concealed positions are under observation and will be targeted if there is support to terror," the sources said.

The terror camps in POK have been active, trying to push terrorists into Indian territory as part of Pakistan's plan to destabilise the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, following abrogation of its special status. While most of the efforts have been foiled, it has not ruled out the possibility of a few terrorists slipping in.

In September, Pakistan drones have dropped weapons across Punjab to support terror outfits.

Till September this year, Pakistan had committed more than 2,050 unprovoked ceasefire violations in which 21 people died, the centre had said last month.