Pakistan sought talks after Operation Sindoor fearing strike on nuclear base: Chouhan

Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Pakistan sought talks with folded hands after India’s Operation Sindoor dismantled its air bases. He dismissed claims of foreign mediation, stressing Bharat’s strength while recalling the Pahalgam terror attack that triggered the military response

Bhopal: Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said after the launch of Operation Sindoor, Pakistan knelt and came for talks with folded hands, fearing India would close in on their nuclear base after dismantling their air bases.

Chouhan also dismissed claims of a foreign nation’s role in ending the hostility between the two neighbouring countries. India launched the Operation Sindoor military operation in May this year after terrorists killed 26 persons at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22.

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“We don’t harbour enmity. You have seen Operation Sindoor. Those monsters who killed the innocent people, husband in front of wife and father before son,” Chouhan said addressing the 12th convocation ceremony of the Bhopal based Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).

“We went for the pinpointed target hitting if you all remember. We demolished the terrorists’ refuge. We did not attack their Army or civilian (base) first. This is Bharat,” he said. When Pakistan used missiles and drones for its attack, India used Brahmos, Agni and Prithvi (missiles) and all air bases of the neighbouring country were dismantled, the agriculture minister said.

“When they thought that Bharat would reach their nuclear base, they knelt, and came to talk with folded hands,” Chouhan said. “They are saying ‘I did it, I did it’,” he said, apparently referring to US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he ended the conflict between the two nuclear states.

“Bharat runs on Bharat’s strength. We don’t attack any individual. We don’t spare terrorists,” the senior BJP leader said. Chouhan said the kin of the Pahalgam attack victims wanted the terrorists to be shot in their heads.

“The terrorists have been eliminated,” he added. Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also said families of Pahalgam attack victims and many other people wanted the three terrorists to be shot in their heads and they met the same fate in Operation Mahadev.

Shah said during investigations the identity of the three terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev clearly established Lashkar-e-Taiba’s hand in Pahalgam attack as all three belonged to this terror outfit.