Operation Sindoor: Understanding Context And Consequences – Analysis
On the intervening night of 6-7 May, 2025, from 01:05 to 01:30 AM, Indian armed forces conducted a tri-service military operation codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’. It targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), aiming to neutralise the operational capabilities of groups responsible for cross-border terrorism on Indian soil.
India said the operation was intended to “pre-empt” and “deter” cross-border terrorism, specifically the Pahalgam attack of 22 April, 2025, that killed 26 civilians (25 Indians and one Nepali) at Baisaran Valley in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian government attributed the attack to The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group had initially claimed responsibility for the attack and subsequently denied it, alleging a “cyber intrusion”.
India described its actions as “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”. The operation deliberately avoided targeting Pakistani military installations to minimise the risk of escalation. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that Operation Sindoor was an “ongoing operation”. He also stated that the strikes had killed over 100 terrorists.
Among the most notable casualties was Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in the IC-814 hijacking of December 1999 and the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Reportedly, 10 family members of JeM chief Masood Azhar were killed.
This was the most expansive military operation conducted by the Indian armed forces since the 1971 War. Moreover, unlike previous operations such as the 2016 surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot airstrike, which were targeted responses, Operation Sindoor constituted a multi-domain, high-precision offensive spread across Pakistan’s Punjab province and PoJK, signalling a strategic evolution in India’s approach to cross-border terrorism.
The operation involved precision strikes targeting nine sites—four in Pakistan and five in PoJK—linked to anti-India terrorist groups such as the LeT, JeM and the Hizbul Mujahideen. The targeted sites included Muridke (LeT headquarters) and Bahawalpur (JeM headquarters).