This day, two years ago in the year 2019 is a live instance that says about the determination and will power of Indian armed forces. The airstrike of Balakot which took place on February 26 2019 was a tit for tat counter attack in response to the Pakistani terrorist attack of Pulwama.
On this day in around 3:30 AM, the Indian Air Force has led an aerial strike with twelve Mirage 2000 fighter jets that have crossed the LoC (Line of Control) and attacked every terror camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) placed in Balakot in Pakistan. This major Indian operation on the attack in Pakistan is named the well-known 'Balakot Air Strike' which took place after the 1971 war of Indo-Pak.
The Pulwama Attack which took place in Jammu and Kashmir in the Pulwama district on February 14, 2019; took the lives of forty CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel. The attack was planned by Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamic terrorist group of Pakistan.
On that day, a total of seventy-eight vehicles were traveling in procession carrying about 2500 CRPF forces on the way to NH 44. At around 3:15 IST near the area of Awantipora, the bus filled with several forces pounded by car-bearing explosives. The blast caused the demise of around forty CRPF forces and many were injured.
This was indeed the dangerous terrorist attack carried on the security forces of India after 1989.
The operation was planned by the NSA (National Security Advisor) Ajit Doval and was granted by our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The airstrike was secretly referred to as 'Operation Bandar' which was carried out by 7th & 9th squadrons of IAF. Mirage 2000s and Sukhoi Su-30 were used for this operation.
To hide from any detection, Twelve Mirage 2000s took off from the air force base of Gwalior. Mirage 2000s made 3 separate formations that took off over central India and north for a few hours.
Su-30 MKIs and Mirage 2000s got into 3 separate formations just prior to enter Pakistan. A crucial role is played by Su-30 MKIs as they first came into the eyes of the radars of Pakistan. As the Pakistani were busy planning to get back Su-30s, in the meantime, the Mirage 2000s moved forward to Balakot and dropped Israeli-made Spice 2000 bombs on the terrorist camps.
One day after the attack, Pakistani send fighter jets in the Indian domain. IAF reacted at that moment and sent those jets without any ruins. While the counter-attack was on, they shot Wing Commander Abhinanda Varthaman's Jet which crashed in PoK. He was captivated by the Pakistan forces for about sixty hours.
Later he was released on 28th Feb 2019 and on 1st March he came back to his land.
The man behind the execution and planning of the airstrike, Hari Kumar, Air Marshal told that " The choice of target and execution came with a lot of planning and intelligence inputs. It was important to send a message to Pakistan that India will not tolerate any more attacks like Pulwama "
The Balakot airstrike was actually a successful and strategic operation against Pakistan and this operation has proved to the entire world that India knows very well to fight back its enemies in their own language.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and many other salutes and showed their respect and honour on Twitter to all the brave and courageous soldiers of our armed forces and paid homage to them who got martyred in the Pulwama attack.
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