"Hope It Ends Quickly": Trump As India Strikes Terror Bases In Pak
New Delhi:
Reacting to India conducting precision strikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan in response to last month’s attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, US President Donald Trump has said the US knew something was going to happen and that he hoped “it ends very quickly”.
Responding to a question at a press conference, Mr Trump said, “We just heard about it as we were walking in the doors of the Oval. I guess we knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past.”
Making a faux pas in an apparent reference to India and Pakistan, the US president added, “They have been fighting for many many decades, and centuries when you think about it. Nah, I just hope it ends very quickly.”
In the early hours of Wednesday, India said it has launched ‘OperationSindoor’, targeting nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan, including in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The defence ministry described the strikes as a “precise and restrained response” to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack and stressed that no Pakistani military facilities were hit, reflecting India’s “calibrated and non-escalatory approach”.
Emphasising the retaliatory nature of the strikes, the ministry said, “This operation underscores India’s resolve to hold perpetrators accountable while avoiding unnecessary provocation.”
The Pakistan army confirmed that bases were struck in Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Muridke and Bahawalpur in Pakistan Punjab. The sites are significant because Muridke is the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to be behind the Pahalgam attack, and Bahawalpur is the base of the Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said attacks were carried out in five locations and that the country “retains the right to respond forcefully”. The country also kept up its ceasefire violations, which have been going on for over 10 days now, and opened artillery fire along the Line of Control in the Bhimber Gali area of the Poonch-Rajauri sector.
The strikes come on a day when civil defence mock drills will be carried out across India – the first since 1971 – and the Indian Air Force will hold large-scale military drills in Rajasthan, along the International Border in Pakistan.
