• In retaliation to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on nine targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7.

• Indian forces targeted the headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) groups in the missile attacks.

• Among the nine sites targeted are the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and the LeT’s in Muridke, both in Pakistan’s Punjab.

• India has categorically stated that its actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted.

• On April 22, as many as 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed in a terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

• India said that the government exercised its right to respond, preempt as well as deter more cross-border attacks, and asserted that it focussed on dismantling the terror infrastructure and disabling terrorists.

• Bahawalpur became the hub of the JeM terror group after the release of Masood Azhar in exchange for the hijacked passengers of IC-814 in 1999. The group has since then been involved in a series of terror strikes in India, including the Parliament attack in 2001, the strike on the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly in 2000, the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in 2016 and the Pulwama suicide bombing in 2019. Masood Azhar, designated a global terrorist, has not been seen in public since April 2019. He started the terror outfit in January 2000.

• Muridke, 30 km from Lahore, has been the headquarters of the LeT since 1990. It is headed by Hafiz Saeed and responsible for the 26/11 terror siege of Mumbai. It has also carried out terror strikes in many other parts of the country, including Jammu & Kashmir, Bangalore and Hyderabad, officials said. Hafiz Saeed, the shadowy mastermind of the LeT, designated as a terror group by the United Nations Security Council, is in India’s most wanted list.

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