In a significant disclosure during the tri-services press briefing on Saturday, Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lt General Rajiv Ghai confirmed that 35 to 40 Pakistani military personnel were killed in India’s precision strikes under Operation Sindoor. The strikes, executed over the past few days, were part of India’s calibrated response to the Pahalgam terror attack and Pakistan’s subsequent drone and missile provocations.
According to Lt Gen Ghai, these casualties occurred during targeted assaults on Pakistani military installations and terror infrastructure across multiple locations, including Muridke, Bahawalpur, Muzaffarabad, and key air bases such as Rafiqui, Chaklala, and Rahim Yar Khan. India’s strikes used precision air-launched weapons and loitering munitions to ensure effectiveness while minimising collateral damage.
Earlier, Lt Gen Ghai had explained the rationale for the military action:
“You are all by now familiar with the brutality and the dastardly manner in which 26 innocent lives were prematurely terminated at Pahalgam on 22nd April. When you combine those horrific scenes and the pain of the families that the nation witnessed with numerous other recent terrorist strikes on our armed forces and defenceless civilians, we knew that the time had arrived to make yet another compelling statement of our resolve as a nation. Operation Sindoor was conceptualized with a clear military aim to punish the perpetrators and planners of terror and to destroy their terror infrastructure.”
Alongside terrorist operatives, Pakistan Army personnel at command and logistics facilities were directly hit. This is seen as a stern message that any further assistance to terror groups would come at a high cost.
The briefing also noted that the Indian Armed Forces remain on high operational readiness, particularly after Pakistan violated the agreed ceasefire within hours of its announcement.
