More than 100 terrorists were killed in strikes carried out by India in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7, claimed Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the director general of military operations, on Sunday.

Among those killed was Mohammad Yusuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and an accused in the IC-814 hijacking case, said Ghai during a press briefing.

This came a day after India and Pakistan reached an agreement to put an end to four days of skirmishes that escalated on May 7 with the Indian military strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to the strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Several civilians have been killed in the firing.

On Sunday, Ghai said that Pakistan’s response to Operation Sindoor was “erratic and rattled”. He said this was “apparent from the number of civilians, inhabited villages and religious sites such as gurudwaras that were unfortunately hit by them, leading to a sad loss of lives”.

Air Marshal AK Bharti said that the Indian military’s aim for the strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – was “to target terrorists and their infrastructure, not any other infrastructure, especially not Pakistani civilian or military establishments”.

Bharti added that this was achieved with precision and the “key difference” was that India had targeted terrorists, while the Pakistan Army's response was “focused on our civilians and military infrastructure”.

In response to this, the Indian Army struck radar installations near Lahore and close to Gujranwala, said Bharti.

Responding to a question about Pakistan’s claims of shooting down Indian aircraft, the air marshal said: “We are in a combat scenario. Losses are a part of combat.”

“All our pilots are back home,” he added.

Bharti said the question that should be asked is if the military had achieved its objectives of decimating terrorist camps. “The answer is yes,” he added.

According to Bharti, the Indian Army had “downed a few Pakistani planes”. However, he did not provide an estimate of the number of planes that were shot down.

The military also displayed photos of the Pakistani infrastructure that it had targeted.

A before and after photo of an air defence radar that the Indian military claimed it had targeted.

Bharti said that nearly 40 personnel from the Pakistan Army had been killed at the Line of Control in Indian strikes.

During the night of May 8, Pakistan sent drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct a coordinated mass raid from Srinagar to Nalya, said Bharti during the media briefing. However, due to India’s robust air defence preparedness, “no damage occurred, neither to strategic targets nor to civilian areas”, added Bharti.

The IC-814 hijacking case, in which Mohammad Yusuf Azhar is one of the accused, involved the commandeering of an Indian Airlines aircraft from Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24, 1999, by members of a Pakistan-based terror outfit. Five terrorists hijacked the plane and eventually landed it in Kandahar in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The standoff – during which a passenger died – ended on December 30, 1999, after the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Vajpayee freed three jailed terrorists.

They included Azhar, whose outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked the Indian Parliament in 2001, and Omar Saaed Shaikh, accused of beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

On May 7, the Indian military said it had targeted nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur. The camp was associated with terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Markaz Taiba in Muridke, which was linked to terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Sarjal in Tehra Kalan, said the military.

It said that Mehmoona Joya in Sialkot, a site linked to the terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, and Markaz Ahle Hadith in Barnala were also struck.

The Indian armed forces said that the camp in Muridke had been used to train Ajmal Kasab, a terrorist involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack in which more than 160 persons were killed.