Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said Pakistan is trying to defame India by making false claims about the Indian Air Force’s operation on terror camps cross the border, PTI reported. The minister said India’s air strike on Pakistan was carried out with caution and no civilians were hurt.

Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party convention in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, Singh described the Indian Air Force’s Tuesday operation as a “befitting reply to Pakistan, which has been trying to destabilise India”. India had claimed that the operation inflicted heavy casualties on the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group.

Singh said no power in the world can separate Kashmir from India. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured [the nation] that we will not let the country be subjugated,” PTI quoted Singh as saying. “Our government will do whatever is required but will not let Mother India bow her head. In the air strike, neither the Pakistani civilians were hurt nor the Pakistan Army was targeted.”

He further said that India was no more a weak country. “India had told Pakistan several times that terrorism was being nourished on their soil. Pakistan has been giving shelter to terrorists. However, Pakistan’s prime minister used to say that his country was also a victim of terrorism,” Singh said.

Singh alleged that some forces are being funded by Pakistan. “Now such forces will not be tolerated,” Singh said. “They have been preventing the development of Kashmir which was once known as India’s paradise.”

On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had said India had carried out “non-military preemptive” strikes on the biggest camp of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant outfit after receiving credible intelligence that the terror outfit was attempting suicide attacks in various parts of the country.

The Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in which 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistani jets allegedly violated Indian airspace, and claimed to have shot down two Indian Air Force aircraft. India has refuted the claim of its jet being downed. Pakistan has also claimed that it captured an IAF pilot. India, on the other hand, says it downed a Pakistani F-16 jet.