A French Air Force Mirage 2000C drops away from a United States Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker (not shown) after refueling during a Combat Patrol mission while participating in NATO Operation Allied Force. The KC-135R is based at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England but is being flown by a crew deployed from the 384th Air Refueling Squadron, McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. Tankers from RAF Mildenhall make-up a large portion of the tanker forces supporting NATO aircraft during NATO Operation Allied Force.
A New Josh!
The agony and shame over the death of 42 soldiers of the CRPF, from a terrorist attack, could be somewhat redeemed by an airstrike by the Indian Airforce into the Pakistani Occupied Kashmir terror camps.
The operation involved a squadron of 12 Mirage 2000 fighters, who took off at 3.40 am today, flew 42 Kms into the enemy occupied territories. Balakot JeM Camp was struck at 3.45 am, Muzzafarabad camp was destroyed at 3.48 am, and Chakothi Camp erased at 3.58 am, all in a 21-minute operation dismantled a few JeM, LeT and Hizbul launch pads and terror camps.
The attack assumes greater significance than ever in the past, including the surgical strikes in response to the earlier URI attacks, because every wing of Pakistan armed force, para-military and intelligence were on the highest alert for Indian retaliation. The American President Trump’s recent statement that Indians will soundly respond adds credence to the Pakistani apprehension. Therefore, to intrude into the enemy occupied territory, dodging their surveillance equipment, completing their precisely targeted goals to return safely back home shows an entirely new India and a ruthless ‘josh.’
Embraer and AWACS system were deployed to pinpoint the target installations and our satellites hovering above were positioned to relay the right logs on the territory. I am sure that India has pricked the bloated ego, frequently and boisterously chanting, we too are a nuclear power and have cut off the itching fingers of the hawkish Pak army generals.
Back home, I will not be surprised if the political opposition yet again cries that it was all a sham and tuned for a comeback for Modi and his BJP party. Some leaders even went to the extent of blaming Modi wilfully sacrificing a few soldiers to whip up war hysteria and score a win in the coming elections. To all of them, my advice is, “Chill.” They can doubt Modi or a quieter defence minister, but not the jawans guarding the country’s borders, or the pilots who did their duty and returned safely.
India has exhibited a high degree of maturity in demolishing only the terror camps and not by reckless war cry driven by a revengeful attitude. However, there will not be much left of Pakistan, which will be erased from the world map, if it tries any misadventure, Vajpayee said it once and iterated by the former Pakistani President, General Parvez Musharaf too, recently in a press conference, post-Pulwama attacks.
PM Imran should wake up and realize that India is much longer than a pitch of 22 yards that he has been used to all his life with match-fixing referees!
Jai Hind!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
Pic: an armed-to-the-teeth IAF Mirage 2000 in sortie
