New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday met and felicitated the personnel from the armed forces, paramilitary, and Jammu and Kashmir Police, who as part of ‘Operation Mahadev’, avenged the April 22 Pahalgam massacre by neutralising all three Pakistan-backed perpetrators.
The Home Minister lauded the security personnel for their bravery and also for bringing ‘closure’ to the pain and agony of victims’ families, who were left shaken and distraught with the cold-blooded murder during a holiday at the Baisaran meadows in J&K’s Pahalgam.
The security personnel, during the Operation Mahadev, gunned down all the terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam carnage, where the tourists were singled out on the basis of religion and then killed at point-blank range. The terrorists killed 26 people, of whom 25 were Hindus and one was a local Muslim ponywalla.
The operation concluded just at the beginning of the Monsoon Session and was also explained by the Home Minister in Parliament. Apprising the House about the daring operation, the Home Minister told the members that all the investigations and forensic evidence confirmed that the terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev were the ones who killed 26 innocent people, including one Nepalese tourist in Pahalgam.
The personnel from the armed forces, CRPF commandos and Jammu and Kashmir Police were honoured by the Home Minister during the special felicitation ceremony held earlier in the day.
The Home Minister met all the security personnel individually and handed over mementoes and shawls to acknowledge and reward their service to the nation. The ‘Operation Mahadev’ team is also understood to have shared their challenges and experiences with the Home Minister, in tracking down the terrorists and eliminating them, during the three-month-long operation.
Home Minister Shah told the soldiers that Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev have sent a clear message to the terrorists as well as their masterminds about the consequences of playing with the lives of Indian citizens.
After the dastardly terror attacks on April 22, the Indian Armed Forces pulverised terror havens and destroyed air bases in Pakistan as part of Operation Sindoor, from May 6 – May 10. While Operation Sindoor taught Pakistan a lesson for spreading terror in India, Operation Mahadev was launched to track down the Pahalgam perpetrators, who managed to stay on the run but were finally eliminated by forces in the third week of July.
(IANS)
