IC-814 hijackers, Pulwama attackers among 100 terrorists killed in Op Sindoor: Army

On Sunday, the Indian Army verified that several key Pakistani terrorists, including individuals linked to the 1999 Indian Airlines flight (IC-814) hijacking and the 2019 Pulwama assault on security forces, were part of the 100 terrorists hit during Operation Sindroor, when India eliminated nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terrorist incident.

“Those strikes across those nine terror hubs left more than 100 terrorists killed, including high-value targets such as Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf and Mudasir Ahmed that were involved in the hijack of IC814 and the Pulwama blast,” the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, said in an Army press briefing.

Yusuf Azhar, sibling of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Maulana Masood Azhar, was sought in relation to the IC-814 hijacking incident that led to Masood Azhar’s release in 1999. He was instrumental in the terror group’s activities, directing weapons training and taking part in multiple attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

The top military official affirmed that ‘Operation Sindoor’ was conceptualised with a “clear military aim to punish the perpetrators and planners of terror and to destroy their terror infrastructure”. “What I do not of course is the often-stated determination of India and its intolerance to terror,” he added.