BENGALURU: By deploying Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets to strike terror camps deep inside Pakistan, India has sent a strong message — “enough is enough!” — that it will no longer be mere exchanges of terror dossiers, but that the country will also deliver laser-guided bombs to destroy terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or even in Pakistan, say veteran pilots.
According to former IAF pilots who have seen action during India-Pakistan wars and Indian Peace Keeping Force missions in Sri Lanka, the IAF brings in an element of surprise as Pakistan would have been prepared for land-based surgical strikes by army, which was conducted on them on September 28, 2016.
“This was expected. Ever since Pulwama terror attack, some kind of retaliatory response was in the offing. Since we have used land surgical strikes the last time, the other side was prepared for that sort of an attack and that may be the reason for using the Indian Air Force to have some kind of element of surprise,” said Air Marshal (retired) Philip Rajkumar, a veteran fighter pilot who had flown a number of fighter aircraft. As a young IAF pilot, he had flown Mystere 4A ground attack aircraft in Lahore and Sialkot sectors during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
Assessment of damage caused by the air strikes is very important, he said. Earlier, the Air Force used to send photo reconnaissance aircraft that photographed the area and those were used to assess the damage. Now, the IAF uses satellite imagery and human intelligence to gather details to assess the damage caused by air strikes. “We have to wait for details to be released by the government,” he said.
Wing Commander (retd) V M Raghunath, who had flown helicopters fitted with Anti-Tank Guided Missiles during the IPKF mission in Sri Lanka from 1987-89, says India kept quiet for too long and there was a need to send out a strong message. “Surgical strike by the Army was a major step, but we needed to send a very strong message. For the first time, in a non-war-like situation, the IAF jets were sent inside enemy airspace and struck terror camps,” he said.