NEW DELHI — In its statement announcing military strikes against “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Indian defense ministry early Wednesday morning spoke only vaguely of nine targets, but provided no details of what was hit other than to say they were all places “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.”
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The military escalation comes after an attack in India-administered Kashmir last month, which saw gunmen kill 26 tourists. India has said Pakistan is responsible for the attack, which Islamabad denies. Meanwhile, world leaders, including the heads of the UN, U.S., China, Russia and the UAE, have all urged leadership of the two nuclear powers to exercise restraint.
Information about the targets first emerged in hastily shot video footage of burning buildings from different places inside Pakistan, especially Bahawalpur. At 04:38 AM IST, Pakistan’s chief military spokesperson named six locations in Pakistan that he said had been targeted. Four of these were in West Punjab: Bahawalpur, Muridke, Kotki Lohara village in Sialkot, and an area near Shakargarh, while the remaining two were in PoK, i.e. Muzzafarabad and Kotli. He added that there had been a total of “24 impacts”.
Later in the morning, sources in India provided reporters covering the BJP beat with a list of the nine targets selected by the military and pointers to why they were picked. While the roles of Bahawalpur and Muridke are well-known, claims about the other seven locations cannot be independently corroborated.
India’s targetted sites inside Pakistan
1. Bahawalpur, Punjab
This large town in Punjab is situated around 100 km within Pakistan and its Ahmedpur locality is where the Jaish-e-Mohammad is headquarted. Founded by Masood Azhar, one of the terrorists freed by India at the end of 2000 in exchange for the release of passengers held hostage by the hijackers of IC-814, the JeM has been involved in a number of terrorist incidents in India over the past two decades.
2. Muridke, Punjab
Located 30 km from the international border, this town was for a long time the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, one of the deadliest terrorist groups active against targets in India. This is where India believes Hafiz Saeed planned the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008. Of course, Saeed moved out of Muridke years ago and is believed to be in Lahore now. And given the high probability of the town being on India’s target list, it is unlikely that the LeT would have maintained significant manpower in the town.
3. Sarjal camp, Shakargarh district, Punjab
The sources clais this was a JeM camp situated about 8 km from the international border, opposite Samba-Kathua.
4. Mehmoona camp, Sialkot district, Punjab
Indian sources claim that this was a training camp used by the Hizbul Mujahideen and is 15 km from the border.
5. Gulpur, ‘Azad Jammu Kashmir’, i.e. PoK
Located some 35 km from the Line of Control opposite Poonch-Rajouri, the sources claim the “roots of attacks” in Poonch on 20 April 2023, and on innocent pilgrims travelling in a bus in June 2024 can be traced back to terrorists here.
6. LeT Kotli camp, PoK
This camp, apparently 15 km from the LoC opposite Rajouri, is being described as an ‘LeT bomber camp’ with a capacity of ‘almost 50 terrorists’. Again, given their proximity to the LoC and the certainty of an Indian military strike, it is not clear how many of the 50 were still at the camp when it was hit.
7. LeT Sawai camp, Tangdhar, PoK
Located 30 km inside the LoC, the sources claim the “roots” of the recent Pahalgam terrorist attack as well as of earlier terror attacks in Sonmarg and Gulmarg in October 2024 lie here.
8. Bilal camp, location not mentioned
Described merely as a ‘JeM launchpad’.
9. Barnala camp, PoK
Described only as being 10 km from the LoC opposite Rajouri.
The only major discrepancy between this list and what the Pakistani army put out through the DG ISPR is the alleged targeting of Muzaffarabad town. The Pakistani side identified the Muzaffarabad target as the Bilal mosque in town.
