India insists on the targeted character of its strikes to, she says, “avoid civilians”
The Minister of Indian Defense, Rajnath Singh, repeated on Wednesday, in front of the press, that the Indian strikes carried out in Pakistan had only targeted “Terrorist camps” carefully identified for “Avoid population or civilian sectors”. India claimed to have destroyed on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday nine sites presented as sheltering members of the jihadist group to which it attributes the responsibility of the attack which killed 22 on April 22 in the Indian cashmere.
New Delhi accused Pakistan of having supported this group, which Islamabad firmly denied. “The targets that have been chosen were destroyed with great precision to ensure that neither the population nor any civil zone are affected”said Mr. Singh. “It was a carefully prepared operation targeting only terrorist infrastructure”he insisted.
Pakistan said that the Indian missiles had killed at least 26 civilians, including children, and injured 46 others. The Pakistani army responded with violent artillery fire targeting the territory of India, arousing new Indian shell fire.
India has reported at least 12 dead in the border village of Poonch, along the control line that separates the cashmere region between the two countries. Islamabad also claimed to have shot five Indian hunters during operations. The Indian Minister made no comments on this subject.