JAIPUR: No terror sanctuary across the frontier is safe anymore, India’s top military brass warned Thursday, signalling continuation of the “new normal” doctrine unveiled after the Pahalgam terror attack.
Marking one year of Operation Sindoor, senior military commanders said the armed forces would continue targeting terrorist infrastructure across the Line of Control, while describing the operation as “just the beginning” of India’s punitive strategy against Pakistan-backed terror.
Addressing a joint press conference in Jaipur on the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, currently serving as Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Strategy), said India had fundamentally altered the rules of engagement across the Line of Control.
“No sanctuary across the LoC is safe. We will hit everything. We will go after everything. That has been made clear in the new normal articulated by the Prime Minister last year. But the conditions, timing and method will remain ours,” Lt Gen Ghai said, in one of the clearest public articulations yet of India’s post-Pahalgam military doctrine.
Stressing that the cross-border strikes carried out under Operation Sindoor were part of a continuing campaign, he added, “Operation Sindoor was not an end. It was only the beginning.”
The remarks came as senior Army, Navy and Air Force officers laid out details of the military damage inflicted on Pakistan during the high-intensity confrontation last year, while dismissing Islamabad’s claims as “narrative warfare” unsupported by evidence.
Air Marshal Bharti said the Indian Air Force had struck 11 Pakistan Air Force bases and destroyed 13 Pakistani aircraft during the conflict, asserting that the scale of damage eventually forced Islamabad to seek cessation of hostilities.
“A narrative and rhetoric do not give you victory,” he said, in a sharp rebuttal to Pakistan’s claims surrounding the confrontation.
Backing the assessment, Lt Gen Ghai said Pakistan had suffered around 100 military fatalities during the operation.
“We have placed hard facts of Pakistan’s military losses in the public domain with irrefutable videos and imagery. Show us one piece of evidence Pakistan has produced to support its own claims,” he said.
The briefing was held on the sidelines of the Joint Commanders’ Conference in Jaipur and was addressed jointly by Lt Gen Ghai, Air Marshal Bharti, Vice Admiral Pramod and Lt Gen Zubin Minwala, Deputy Chief in the tri-services Integrated Defence Staff (IDS).
Highlighting the Navy’s role during the confrontation, Vice Admiral AN Pramod said indigenous platforms such as aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, along with Kolkata and Visakhapatnam-class destroyers, had validated India’s long-term investments in indigenous naval capability and operational readiness.
“If challenged again, we will not merely respond, we will shape the battlespace from the outset,” he said.
