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The strikes, targeting key strongholds of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror

Satellite imagery, released by Maxar Technologies and accessed by Reuters, has provided stark visual evidence of the destroyed terror infrastructure in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur and Muridke caused by India’s precision missile strikes, carried out under ‘Operation Sindoor’ in the early hours of Wednesday.

The strikes, targeting key strongholds of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives, mostly tourists.

Before-and-after satellite images of the Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur, the operational headquarters of JeM, show significant damage.

Colonel Sofiya Qureshi of the Indian Army, during a press briefing on the operation on Wednesday, confirmed the destruction of the Markaz Subhanallah in Bahawalpur, located 100 km inside Pakistan, stating, “It was the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed, targeted by Indian Armed Forces.” Markaz Subhan Allah, Bahawalpur, operational since 2015, is the main centre of JeM for training and indoctrination and serves as the operational headquarters of JeM. It is associated with terrorist planning by JeM, including the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019.

The Markaz consists of residences of JeM Chief Maulana Masood Azhar, de facto Chief of JeM Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, Maulana Ammar and other family members of Masood Azhar. Masood Azhar has made several addresses from this facility, extolling anti-India rhetoric and appealing to youth to join Islamic Jihad. JeM conducts regular arms, physical and religious training for its cadres at Markaz Subhan Allah.

Similarly, satellite imagery of Muridke, a hub of LeT, shows the aftermath of strikes on Markaz Taiba. Pre-strike images display a sprawling complex with multiple buildings, while post-strike visuals reveal extensive structural damage.

Markaz Taiba, Muridke, established in the year 2000, is the ‘alma mater’ and the most important training centre of LeT in Pakistan. The complex holds arms and physical training facilities, as well as dawa’h and radicalisation for terror entities, both from within Pakistan and abroad.

This Markaz enrols around 1000 students in different courses annually, highlighting the role of this Markaz in churning out terror entities for LeT annually.

Pointing to Markaz Taiba in Muridke, Colonel Qureshi, during the briefing, said that the complex was 18-25 km inside Pakistan and that “those involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks trained here, including Ajmal Kasab and David Headley”.

Osama Bin Laden had financed Rs 10 million to construct a Mosque and Guest House within the complex.

A white-colored cylindrical device fell in the courtyard of a person’s house in village Ghagwal in Hajipur. Wires were also coming out from the device. According to information, on May 7, around 1:30 am, an unknown device similar to the..

A white-colored cylindrical device fell in the courtyard of a person’s house in village Ghagwal in Hajipur. Wires were also coming out from the device.

According to information, on May 7, around 1:30 am, an unknown device similar to the shape of a water geyser fell from the sky in the courtyard of the house of Ashok Kumar, a resident of Ghagwal. Hearing the sound, not only the people of the house but also neighbours woke up from sleep. When people saw, a white-colored cylindrical device was lying in the courtyard from which many wires were protruding.

Information regarding this was immediately given to the Hajipur police who reached the spot and took the device in their possession. A serial number and ‘Test Port Seeker’ was written on it. The police informed the forensic team and anti-sabotage team for its investigation.

DSP Kulwinder Singh told this correspondent that in the preliminary investigation, it appeared to be a piece of equipment fallen off some aircraft. He said after getting the information, a team of the air force also reached there and took the equipment with them. He said probably the equipment was the data recorder of some aircraft.

In this episode of Decode Punjab, The Tribune’s Associate Editor Sanjeev Singh Bariana and Special Correspondents Ruchika M Khanna and Rajmeet Singh discuss the situation in Punjab, a frontline state with a shared 530 km border with Pakistan, in the.

In this edition of #TheTribuneInterview, The Tribune’s editor-in-chief Jyoti Malhotra spoke to South Asia scholar & Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC Christine F Fair on the significance of the Indian missile strikes in Muridke and Bahawalpur, where…

In a bold and calculated move, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision airstrikes targeting nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), in response to escalating cross-border terrorism and the recent Pahalgam Terror Attack in which 26…

In a bold and calculated move, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision airstrikes targeting nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), in response to escalating cross-border terrorism and the recent Pahalgam Terror Attack in which 26 civilians were killed.

According to official sources, the most significant strike hit the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) headquarters in Bahawalpur, a deeply symbolic target situated roughly 100 kilometers from the international border. This site was reportedly a hub for planning large-scale attacks against Indian soil.

Another major hit was delivered to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) training camp in Muridke, just 30 kilometers across the border opposite Samba. Infamously associated with the training of the terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, this camp was a grim reminder of the enduring threat posed by cross-border terrorism.

It is easy to get carried away by the propaganda and the mass psychology of revenge it accelerates.

Avijit Pathak

It is not easy to come out of the shock, pain and anger that the recent terrorist attack at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir has caused to our collective consciousness. And, as many suspect the involvement of Pakistan in this brute act, the mass psychology of revenge seems to have affected the public sentiment. Yes, it is for the Indian state, and associated officials, foreign policy strategists and army personnel to decide the way the entire gang of terrorists and their sponsors are punished and eliminated.

Yet, as a teacher/educator, I dare to be contemplative, and ask myself a difficult question: Can our ‘legitimate’ violence be necessarily appreciated as the most appropriate response to their illegitimate violence? Or, is there any other way to acknowledge the roots of this violence, and move towards a state of collective sanity through self-reflexive education and mass awakening?

As teachers, we have some responsibility to communicate with the young generation, urge them not to get carried away by the instinctive urge for revenge and problematise what these days we have almost normalised. In this context, let me make three observations.

First, whenever a crisis of this kind erupts, the proponents of hyper-nationalism become super active. And as an emotion, hyper-nationalism is immensely addictive because it simplifies a complex phenomenon, creates binaries, popularises conspiracy theories, negates the possibility of authentic self-critique and demonises the ‘enemies’ of the nation for every problem it confronts. While the ruling regime loves the gospel of this ideology of binaries to hide its own failures, we, as ordinary citizens, are almost hypnotised to think that our ‘enemies’ — say, Pakistan, or ‘separatists’ in Kashmir, or the Muslim population in general — cause all sorts of problems; and if we succeed in eliminating these enemies, we would live in peace forever! No wonder, the stimulation of hyper-nationalism, far from restoring sanity and the spirit of dialogue, takes us to a never-ending chain of violence vs counter-violence.

Second, the discourse of hyper-nationalism, as we are witnessing, is sustained by yet another dangerous practice of religious fundamentalism. In fact, the practice of religious fundamentalism robs religion of the religiosity of love and compassion, or the spiritual quest for the oceanic merger of the temporal and the eternal, form and formlessness, or the finite and the infinite. Instead, it blinds our visions, and makes us think that it is only our religion that is supreme, and all those who adhere to different faiths are necessarily our enemies and potential sources of cultural contamination. When the terrorists killed innocent people on the basis of their religious identities at Pahalgam, we could see a close link between terrorism and religious fundamentalism. But then, there is a great danger, if in order to cope with this sort of Islamic fundamentalism, we too are tempted to fall into the same trap. Is it, therefore, surprising that at this crucial moment, a group of militant Hindu nationalists are provoking us so that we begin to see every Muslim as a potential enemy of the nation? Likewise, when every Kashmiri Muslim is reduced to an object of perpetual surveillance or military gaze, we reproduce the same ideology of violence.

Third, it is high time we began to interrogate militarism as an answer to terrorist violence. War is not fun; war is not a television spectacle; and war, far from solving a problem, intensifies it further. Yes, the wound it causes does not heal easily. Even if the narcissistic ego of a nation seeks to manifest itself through its military power, missiles, bombs and nuclear weapons, the celebration of militarism brutalises our consciousness and negates the possibility of dialogue, reconciliation and peace.

In recent times, we have witnessed the devastating effect of the Russia-Ukraine war, or, for that matter, the Israel-Palestine war. And despite a series of wars with Pakistan, Indo-Pak relationship remains tension-ridden. The ‘victory’ in a bloody war might help the power-hungry politicians to win another election. However, it does by no means assure peace and cross-cultural understanding.

These are difficult times. It is easy to get carried away by the propaganda machinery, and the mass psychology of revenge it accelerates. In fact, if you speak a different language you are suspected, or ridiculed as a foolish ‘idealist’. Yet, as teachers, we have a role to play at this moment of collective insanity. Hence, I invoke three great teachers — Rabindranath Tagore, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Thich Nhat Hanh — and seek to learn from their wisdom, and try to communicate with the young generation.

With his poetic wonder and universalism, Tagore could see the discontents of hyper-nationalism, war, militarism and the psychology of violence.

Likewise, Jiddu Krishnamurti repeatedly warned us of the negative consequences of our ‘conditioning’. This conditioning erects walls of separation and causes all sorts of division: I am a Hindu, you are a Muslim; I am a Jew, you are a Christian; or I am an Indian, you are a Pakistani! The result is that we begin to see one another through the prism of this conditioning with all sorts of stereotypes; never do we realise our shared humanity. For Krishnamurti, it is important to decondition our minds so that we can look at the world with absolute freshness and innocence.

And, Thich Nhat Hanh —the Buddhist monk who saw the Vietnam war — came forward with his engaged religiosity and put great emphasis on dialogue, compassionate listening and kindness. Even Osama bin Laden, he said with his characteristic wisdom, needs to be listened to and understood.

Is it possible for well-meaning educators, social activists and public intellectuals across the borders to come together and initiate a movement for collective sanity?

Avijit Pathak is a sociologist.

Operation Sindoor symbolises India’s strategic evolution. The challenge is to sustain the momentum of this transformation.

Lt Gen Dushyant Singh retd

INDIA’S strategic calculus fundamentally shifted on the intervening night of May 6-7, when the Indian Army and Air Force jointly executed Operation Sindoor. Conducted in response to the barbaric terror attack at Pahalgam on April 22, which claimed the lives of 26 innocent civilians, the operation reflected not merely India’s intent to seek retribution, but a clear demonstration of the evolving sophistication and precision of its military capability.

Operation Sindoor was meticulously planned and brilliantly executed, with surgical precision that minimised collateral damage. Nine strategically crucial terrorist infrastructures — five in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bhimber) and four deep within Pakistani territory (Sialkot, Muridke, Bahawalpur) — were targeted with precision never seen before in the region.

These locations hosted prominent Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training camps and command centres, the centres for terrorism orchestrated against India.

The joint operation exemplified superior inter-service coordination — an operational hallmark vital for modern military successes.

Around 70 per cent of the targets were precisely neutralised by the Indian Army employing drones and advanced precision-guided munitions, highlighting the increasingly crucial role of unmanned systems in contemporary conflicts. Seven targets were destroyed by the army, while the air force complemented this action by using standoff precision weapons against approximately 30 per cent of the designated targets.

Importantly, this joint effort deliberately avoided Pakistani military installations, signifying restraint and measured intent. The international community promptly recognised this nuanced approach — Israel supported India’s right to self-defence, the UAE urged restraint and dialogue, while the US called for a swift resolution to prevent further escalation. Such support shows the legitimacy India enjoys when responding decisively, yet responsibly, to provocations.

However, a word of caution for Pakistan: this restraint should not be mistaken as our weakness. Any further adventure will be responded with far greater intensity and ferocity.

In contrast, Pakistan resorted to false propaganda and disinformation to mask the extent of its operational losses. Within hours, Pakistani military spokespersons and media outlets claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and falsely asserted the capture of soldiers as prisoners of war. These fabricated narratives were debunked by independent analysts and fact-checkers.

For instance, purported images circulated by Pakistan were traced back to an unrelated MiG-29 crash in Rajasthan in 2024; Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif retracted initial claims of captured Indian personnel. Such misinformation reflects Pakistan’s strategic pattern — attempting to deflect from its own tactical and operational failures by misleading its domestic populace and international community.

Operationally, Sindoor achieved several objectives. The foremost was dismantling major nodes of Pakistan’s cross-border terror apparatus, significantly degrading their operational capabilities and disrupting potential terrorist plans.

Secondly, the seamless coordination between the army and the air force displayed India’s progress towards true jointness, essential for future engagements. Thirdly, it sent a robust message of deterrence to Pakistan’s deep state: terror sanctuaries, no matter how deep inside Pakistani territory, are no longer safe. Lastly, the strategic messaging to Pakistan to mend its ways or face greater consequences. The N-card will not work anymore.

Yet, the end of one operation is merely the beginning of strategic vigilance and preparedness for suitable response to any pushback. Pakistan’s historical responses to India’s retaliatory military actions exhibit a pattern of irrational escalation and reckless provocation. After India’s 2016 surgical strikes, Pakistan denied that any strikes took place, while simultaneously increasing ceasefire violations by 200 per cent and intensifying terrorist infiltration.

Following the 2019 Balakot strikes, Pakistan’s air force retaliated, causing escalation risks, and proxy infiltrations intensified dramatically. Such behaviours clearly illustrate Pakistan’s strategic irrationality, driven less by coherent statecraft than by domestic political compulsions and ideological compulsions embedded deeply within its military-intelligence establishment.

Thus, India must brace for potential escalation from Pakistan in two domains: direct military confrontation and intensified proxy terror strikes. Pakistan may escalate artillery or rocket fire along the LoC, attempt airspace incursions or resort to sensationalised media theatrics to provoke India.

More dangerously, and far likelier, will be asymmetric strikes by proxies against India’s dual-use infrastructure — communication centres, energy installations and transportation hubs — using low-cost, high-impact drone technologies or other asymmetric tactics, as evidenced by recent global conflicts, notably in Ukraine.

Indeed, the conflict in Ukraine demonstrates the effectiveness of drone warfare — drones accounting for over 70 per cent of battlefield casualties and effectively neutralising expensive, conventional platforms. This drone-driven asymmetry, reshaping global conflicts, must inform India’s immediate threat assessments and strategic posturing.

Moreover, China’s naval drone developments, exemplified by its new Type 076 drone carrier, indirectly compound regional threats through potential technology transfers to Pakistan.

India, therefore, needs decisive strategic recalibration. Immediate operational preparedness must focus on drone and counter-drone technologies, precision strike capabilities and sophisticated AI-enabled command and control structures.

The defence reform agenda must gain urgency. Given Pakistan’s propensity for irrational escalation, reforms and robust deterrence capabilities are strategic imperatives, not optional policies.

Operation Sindoor symbolises India’s strategic evolution. The challenge is to sustain the momentum of this transformation and pre-emptively prepare for potential escalations by an adversary known for irrationality.

As recent events underline, India’s security and standing hinge upon decisive military modernisation and strategic preparedness. The time for incrementalism is past; India must adapt swiftly and strategically to secure a peaceful yet robustly defended future. Because in geopolitics, countries only respect brute power.

Lt Gen Dushyant Singh (Retd) is Director General, Centre for Land Warfare Studies.

India must impose more severe costs on the neighbour for indulging in cross-border terrorism

Tilak Devasher

INDIA is angry. The cold-blooded and communal killing of 26 innocent civilians in Pahalgam on April 22 led to the demand and expectation of retribution. Pakistan did not have to wait long for the kinetic action that it was sure would come. And it came in the wee hours of May 7 when nine terror facilities were targeted in precision attacks. These included the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) at Bahawalpur and of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at Muridke.

For India, the road ahead was clear. It had served notice on Pakistan after Uri in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019 that it would not accept terror in inter-state relations and there would be costs to pay. Pakistan seemed to have forgotten those lessons and resorted to a terror strike in Pahalgam. Hence, India now has to impose more severe costs on Pakistan for indulging in cross-border terrorism. The pain would have to be long-term and decisive. PM Narendra Modi has articulated this when he stated that the consequences would be unimaginable.

Earlier, India’s non-kinetic retribution was swift, changing the rules of engagement. Within a day, several measures were taken, of which the key one was holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance. Since Pakistan is totally dependent on the Indus and its tributaries for its irrigation needs, this measure sent severe shockwaves in that country. Simply put, Pakistan’s water system is already on the verge of collapse and the country is staring at water scarcity. Further disruption of water supply would not only exacerbate the existing scarcity but have a cascading effect on crop yields and food security. There would thus be long-term consequences for Pakistan’s agriculture.

Trying to keep pace with India, Pakistan announced the suspension of bilateral accords, including the Simla Agreement, and also banned trade and use of its airspace with India, apart from reciprocating diplomatic measures announced by India. It also threatened that disruption of the IWT would be considered as an “act of war” and “responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power.”

The Pakistan narrative, as developed since April 22, has the following elements:

(i) Pakistan has nothing to do with the Pahalgam incident.

(ii) Indian allegations against Pakistan are without an iota of evidence.

(iii) Pakistan demands an independent and transparent probe by neutral investigators.

(iv) India is diverting attention from its inability to suppress the inalienable right of Kashmiris to self-determination, its security failures as well as its decades-long state terrorism and oppression.

(v) India is seeking to suppress Kashmiris and defy UNSC resolutions on the issue.

(vi) India needs to explain why such incidents usually coincide with high-profile visits.

(vii) Holding the IWT in abeyance is unilateral and illegal.

(viii) There are strong indications that India plans to launch military strikes on multiple targets despite the absence of any evidence of Pakistan being linked to the latest terrorist attack.

(ix) After the attacks, Pakistan has claimed that all the targets were mosques, trying to give a communal colour to the strikes against terror facilities.

The above narrative has been peppered with the threat of the use of nuclear weapons by political leaders and officials.

The most interesting part of Pakistan’s narrative was the assertion of Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar that as a non-permanent member of the UNSC, Islamabad pushed to water down the language in the US-proposed statement, which originally named and shamed The Resistance Front, a proxy of proscribed terror group LeT. Deliberately calling it a ‘Forum’ formed by the local population, Pakistan rejected its classification as a terror group. If the ‘Forum’ (actually Front) was merely an Indian outfit, having no connection with the Pak-based LeT, why would Pakistan go out of the way to have the reference blocked?

Meanwhile, Pakistan is preparing international legal action over India holding the IWT in abeyance. It is working on at least three legal options that include raising the issue at the World Bank; taking action at the Permanent Court of Arbitration; or at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. A fourth diplomatic option is to raise the issue at the UNSC.

Though Pakistan sought to create the impression that the attack was due to an indigenous uprising, the targeting of Hindu tourists showed that it was a religiously motivated act of terror. The attack showed Pakistan’s frustration since it sought to degrade the growing tourism sector that directly impacted the livelihoods of Kashmiris. It also sought to dent the Indian narrative of normalcy since the abrogation of Article 370. Finally, the timing of the attack was significant since it coincided with the high-profile visit of US Vice-President JD Vance to India and PM Modi’s trip to Saudi Arabia.

After the Pahalgam attack, there have been confessions from Pak ministers that clearly implicate Pakistan in the terror architecture it has created over the past few decades. Thus, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, replying to a question during an interview with Sky News on April 25, said, “We have been doing this dirty work [backing and funding terror groups] for the United States for about three decades… and the West, including Britain….” Then, former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, in a conversation with Sky News on May 1, acknowledged the country’s link with terror operatives, saying that Pakistan has a past.

A related development has been the sudden appointment of Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik as Pakistan’s National Security Adviser (NSA), marking the first time a serving ISI chief holds both posts simultaneously. The post of NSA in Pakistan had been vacant since April 2022 when the civilian incumbent, Moeed Yusuf, vacated it following the ouster of Imran Khan as PM in a no-confidence motion. The dual appointment does signal a strengthening of power of the Pakistan Army, relegating civilians to the sidelines when there are heightened India-Pakistan tensions. The NSA, who holds the status of a federal minister, also heads the National Security Division, based in the Pak PMO.

This move is clearly an attempt by Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir to take charge of backchannel talks with India. It should suit India since the interlocutor on the Pak side would represent the real power-brokers, something that would be critical in times of crisis.

With India having taken out terror camps, it remains to be seen how Pakistan will react. Its options are limited since there are no terror camps in India. So what would Pakistan target?

Views are personal

Tilak Devasher is former Member, National Security Advisory Board.

No order by authorities on evacuation; officials counsel villagers in Ferozepur

Anirudh Gupta Our Correspondent

Several residents of villages located along the International Border with Pakistan here started moving to safer places after India struck the terror infrastructure in the neighbouring country in early hours on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Deepshikha Sharma urged villagers not to panic, saying “no order had been issued to evacuate villages”.

She said the administration was fully alert and prepared to deal with all contingencies. Sharma said senior officials were also sent to counsel villagers.

Meanwhile, several residents were seen shifting to safer places at villages, including Tendi Wala, Kalu Wala, Gatti Rajo Ke, Jhugge Hazara, Navi Gatti Rajo Ke, Gatti Rahime Ke, Chandiwala, Basti Bhanewali and Jallo Ke.

They were seen packing valuables besides food and clothes. Some of the villagers were spotted loading essential items on to tractor-trailers, bullock carts and even motorcycles.

A villager said he was persuaded by his relatives to shift to a “safer place”, apprehending a “war-like situation” between the two countries in upcoming days.

Kakku Singh (63), a resident of Bhambha Haji village in Mamdot, said he had come to meet her two married daughters at Kaluwala village. Kaluwala village is surrounded by the Sutlej on three sides and Pakistan on the fourth.“When I heard the news about the India’s attack (on the terror infrastructure in Pakistan), I got worried about my daughters and their families. I am taking them to my home till the situation normalises,” he said.

Pachho Bai (58) of Tendi Wala village and her daughter-in-law were seen packing clothes.

Pachho Bai said she was worried as her house was situated just 2 km away from the border. “There are six members in our family. My husband and son have gone to work but we are planning to move to a relative’s place,” she said.

Ranjit Singh, a resident of Gatti Rajo Ke village, said he would drop his three children at a relative’s house at Ali Ke village.

“My wife told me to shift them to a safer place. Though there is no official order asking for evacuation, most villagers are either leaving their homes or sending their loved ones to safer places,” he said.

However, many still have decided to stay back, confident of the armed forces’ capability to defend the country in case of a war. Surjeet Singh of Tendi Wala village said, “We are ready to support our soldiers as the first line of defence.”

Residents recall past wars

Fazilka: A similar situation was witnessed at some of the Fazilka villages. At Pakka Chisti village, situated just 1 km from the International Border, octogenarian Ojha Singh recalled the 1965 and 1971 Wars. He said in 1971, they had to rush for life, leaving behind their livestock and belongings.

He claimed that about 20 persons were made captive by Pakistan in the 1965 War.

At Mohar Jamsher village, former Sarpanch Hansa Singh said several residents had shifted their valuables to their relatives while deciding to stay back until the authorities advised them to leave.

Gunfight breaks out in the morning in the Karregutta hills forest along the interstate border

Twenty-two Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces on Wednesday in the forests of Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district bordering Telangana during ‘Operation Sankalp’, a massive counter-insurgency initiative, a senior police official said.

The gunfight broke out in the morning in the Karregutta hills forest along the interstate border, he said.

“So far, bodies of 22 Naxalites have been recovered and a search operation was underway in the area”, he said, adding that the identity of the slain cadres was yet to be established.

With the latest encounter, the toll of Naxalites gunned down under Operation Sankalp since April 21 has climbed to 26.

Operation Sankalp, one of the biggest counter-insurgency actions launched in the Bastar region, involves around 24,000 security personnel from different units including District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), all units of state police, Central reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA.

The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of senior cadres of battalion no. 1, the strongest military formation of Maoists, Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) and Telangana state committee of Maoists.

On April 24, three Naxalite women, belonging to the PLGA battalion no.1 of Maoists carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh each, were gunned down on the Karregutta hills, leading to the recovery of a huge cache of weapons, explosives, and other material.

On May 5, a woman Naxalite was killed in a gunfight with security forces in the area.

The area surrounded by dense forests and lined by hills is believed to be the base of the Maoist battalion no. 1, the police official said.

“The inputs suggest several senior-level Maoist cadres have either been killed or seriously injured during this operation, but their colleagues managed to drag them inside the forest,” he said.

The official said hundreds of Naxal hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed so far during the operation, and a huge cache of explosive material, detonators, medicines, and other items was seized.

At least six security personnel, including an official of CoBRA unit, were injured in different incidents of pressure IED blasts. All the injured jawans are out of danger and are being treated in various hospitals.

With the latest action, 168 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 151 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur.