'Forces followed ideals of Lord Hanuman, targeted those who harmed us': Rajnath Singh on 'Operation Sindoor'

New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday applauded the Armed Forces for highly-successful military strikes across the border and said that they were carried out with precision, alertness and sensitivity, ensuring no civilian casualties. He also said that the Armed Forces followed the ideals of Lord Hanuman in neutralising the targets across the border.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of 50 BRO infrastructure projects across six states and two UTs, the Defence Minister said: "We have followed the ideal of Hanuman ji, which he demonstrated while destroying Ashok Vatika - Those who struck me, I struck them. We only targeted those who harmed our innocents,” he said, while adding that the Armed Forces have demonstrated a kind of precision, precaution, and compassion.

“The targets we had set were destroyed with accuracy as per the meticulously planned strategy. We have shown sensitivity by ensuring that no civilian population was affected in the slightest,” the Defence Minister said.

He also credited the successful strikes to ‘operational freedom to the forces’ given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Under PM Modi’s leadership, our forces delivered a strong response by destroying the camps training terrorists," the Defence Minister said.

Further saluting the valour of the Armed Forces, he said that India reserves the right to respond to any incident of terror on its soil and stands ready to take on those who want to harm the country.

“This action of ours has been carried out with great thought and in a measured manner. With the aim of crushing the morale of terrorists, this action has been limited solely to their camps and other infrastructure. I once again salute the valor of our armed forces,” he remarked.

The Armed Forces carried out a pre-dawn strike on Wednesday on key terror targets across the border in Pakistan as well as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, flattening the terror factories and eliminating more than 70 terrorists.

--IANS

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