NEW DELHI: It was a cold, calculated, carefully calibrated retribution after keeping Pakistan on edge for 15 days since the Pahalgam terror massacre. In the early hours of Wednesday, India carried out precision strikes on nine terror hubs in Pakistan and POK to “successfully destroy them” in a synchronised operation by the IAF and Army.Under the tellingly named Operation Sindoor, a strike package of Rafale, Mirage-2000 and Sukhoi-30MKI fighters fired a salvo of long-range missiles and ‘smart’ glide bombs without crossing the Line of Control (LoC) or international boundary (IB) in J&K after taking off from different bases in the hinterland. AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft served as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the supersonic jets for the mission.Simultaneously, Army units launched loitering munitions or Kamikaze drones for long-range airstrikes and fired ‘smart’ extended range artillery shells to hammer specific targets based on hard and credible intelligence.It’s difficult to correctly assess the number of terrorists killed on the ground during Operation Sindoor, but intelligence estimates said the toll could be in the range of 70 to 100. “It would have been quite high at the two nerve centres in Muridke and Bahawalpur,” a source said.The high-tempo blitz, from 1.04am to 1.30am, targeted four terror camps in Pakistan and five in Pak-occupied Kashmir. The Army took on seven camps that were relatively closer, while IAF handled the other two, sources told TOI.The targets ranged from Sawai Nala camp in Muzaffarabad in the north, around 30km from the LoC, to Markaz Taiba in Muridke (Lashkar-e-Taiba HQ) about 25km from the IB, and Markaz Subhan Allah at Bahawalpur (Jaish-e-Muhammed HQ), around 100km away, in the south.“India exercised its right to respond and pre-empt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks. These actions were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible,” foreign secretary Vikram Misri said. “They focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists likely to be sent across to India,” he added, flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh at a briefing.Video footage was released to underline the strategic and operational success of Operation Sindoor.Armed forces scripted history: Defence minister The absence of such evidence during the air strikes on the JeM terror facility at Balakot in Feb 2019 had led some quarters to doubt the claims at that time.Wing Commander Singh said the strikes on the nine terror camps were undertaken through “precision capability using niche technology, with careful selection of warheads” that ensured no collateral damage. “The point of impact in each target was a specific building or a group of buildings. All the targets were neutralised with clinical efficiency… No military establishments were targeted,” she said.Col Qureshi, in turn, added, “The target locations (nine of the 21 identified camps) were selected to avoid damage to civilian infrastructures and loss of any civilian lives. This was done with due diligence.”Speaking at a function later in the day, defence minister Rajnath Singh said India through Operation Sindoor had used its “right to respond” to the dastardly attack on its soil at Pahalgam. “The armed forces scripted history by acting with precision, precaution and compassion to destroy the camps used to train terrorists in Pakistan and POK. The action was carried out very thoughtfully and in a measured manner. It was limited only to the camps and other infrastructure used for training terrorists, with the aim of breaking their morale,” he said.