‘Operation Sindoor': Precision strikes on terrorists’ facilities, Chinese Defence weaponry

‘OPERATION Sindoor’’, launched by the Indian armed forces on May 7 signified a substantial military reaction to a terrorist assault at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, resulting in 26 fatalities.

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Nine distinct terrorist facilities in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) were targeted, concentrating on the eradication of terrorist infrastructure associated with organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. No civilian as well as military locations were targeted by India. The battle not only demonstrated India's strategic capabilities but also revealed significant vulnerabilities in Pakistan's Defence systems, particularly its dependence on Chinese-supplied military equipment.

Why ‘Operation Sindoor’? The operation was triggered by a massacre in Pahalgam in which 26 civilians, the majority being Indian tourists, were killed by gunmen. India attributed the attack to terrorists sponsored by Pakistan. In response, India initiated ‘Operation Sindoor' in the early hours of May 7, employing a combination of long-range standoff weapons, including air-launched missiles and loitering munitions, and struck nine locations.

Pakistan asserted that it had reacted; however, the Indian strikes were characterised as "measured, non-escalatory, and proportionate,” concentrating on terrorist infrastructure while excluding civilian or military locations. But there were tit-for-tat drone and missile exchanges when Pakistan claimed civilian losses and charged India with intensifying the conflict.

Pakistan's overdependence on Chinese military equipment:

‘Operation Sindoor' exposed the vulnerabilities associated with Pakistan's armed forces’ extreme reliance on Chinese-supplied military equipment. ‘Operation Sindoor' functioned as an operational evaluation of Chinese Defence technology against a blend of Indian and Western systems, exposing a trend of system malfunctions and suboptimal performance.