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Two weeks after Pakistani terrorists gunned down 26 civilians near Pahalgam in Jammu & Kashmir, India responded on Wednesday (May 7) with airstrikes on nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Codenamed Operation Sindoor, these strikes targeted the terrorist infrastructure across the border and the Line of Control (LoC).
“Over the last three decades, Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure. It is a complex web of recruitment and indoctrination centres, training areas for initial and refresh of courses, and launch pads for handlers,” Wg Cdr Vyomika Singh said during a press briefing on Wednesday morning.
The targets were chosen “based on credible intelligence inputs” and so as to “avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of any civilian lives”, Singh said.
🔴 Hafiz Saeed’s headquarters, nerve centre of Lashkar-e-Taiba
The Markaz Taiba in Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab province is the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and its front, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Besides being a site of training and recruitment, the sprawling 200-acre campus serves as the ideological nerve centre of the LeT. It is here that all key terror attacks of the Lashkar are planned and directed, sources said.
The facility lies 18-25 km away from the international border (IB), the Army said on Wednesday, adding that terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks — including Ajmal Kasab and David Headley — were trained here.
The Markaz Taiba, as it stands today, was set up in 2000, with Osama bin Laden providing a Rs 1 crore donation for a mosque and a guest house within the campus. The complex includes multiple mosques, residential complexes (including the residence of LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed), schools, medical facilities, and farmland.
🔴 Major LeT camp in PoK, where Pahalgam terrorists trained
This camp in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) is located 30 km from the LoC, and is the LeT’s most important training centre. The Army said on Wednesday that the terrorists behind the attacks in Sonmarg and Gulmarg last October, and Pahalgam on April 22, were trained here. The name of this camp also came up after the 2000 Red Fort attack.
According to sources in the security establishment, the camp emerged in the 1990s, at the height of the militancy in Jammu & Kashmir. It has provided combat and weapons training, instruction in survival tactics and guerrilla warfare strategies, and ideological indoctrination to many LeT recruits over the years.
Under international pressure, the Sawai Nala camp was very briefly shut down following the 9/11 and 26/11 terror attacks. In recent times, several terrorists caught while infiltrating into J&K have named this camp as a location where they received training.
🔴 Camp for Lashkar and Jaish, terrorist recruits are provided training by Pakistani special forces.
The Indian Army said on Wednesday that this camp was the main staging area for the Jaish-e-Mohammed in PoK, and served as a centre for weapons, explosives, and jungle-survival training. It is located on the Neelum river opposite the Red Fort in Muzaffarabad.
Intelligence sources said the camp is suspected to have come in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and that apart from JeM recruits, LeT fighters, too, are trained here. Photographs retrieved from the phones of killed JeM terrorists have indicated that the Pakistani special forces, the Special Service Group, provide training to the terrorist recruits at this site.
🔴 Close to the LoC, training camp for mountain and jungle terrain, launchpad for infiltrators
Located 9 km from the LoC in PoK, this is a training centre for weapons handling, assembling IEDs, and jungle-survival, the Army said on Wednesday.
Security sources said the camp came up in the 1990s, and is used by both the LeT and the JeM terrorist groups. Sources said the camp specialised in preparing militants for mountainous and forested terrains which they would have to reckon with while infiltrating into J&K.
Its close proximity to the LoC also makes the Barnala camp a useful launchpad for terrorists looking to cross into J&K, or for smuggling operations.
🔴 Indoctrination centre and school for fidayeen recruits, located close to Pakistani military camp
The Army said on Wednesday that the camp, located 13 km from the LoC in PoK and only 2 km from the Kotli military camp, is used to prepare fidayeen fighters — suicide attackers — for the JeM.
Sources in the security establishment said this camp too came up in the 1990s. It provides close-quarters battle (CQB) training, breaching and hostage-taking drills, and indoctrination focusing on martyrdom (shahadat) missions.
The camp’s name has come in various terror attacks including the one on the J&K Assembly in 2001, and on the Army brigade headquarters in Uri in 2016.
🔴 Near International Border in Pakistani Punjab, regrouping site before specialised terror training.
This camp lies 6 km away from the IB in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The Army said the terrorists who killed four J&K police personnel in March 2025 in Kathua, Jammu, were trained here.
Located inside the premises of a primary health centre in Sarjal village near Sialkot, the camp was established in the late 1990s. Due to its proximity to Punjab and the India border, Sarjal has been used as a staging ground for infiltration and coordinating logistics. It has occasionally served as a resting and regrouping site before militants are moved to more specialised camps in Muzaffarabad and Kotli.
🔴 Initial induction centre for terrorists who infiltrate through Punjab and Jammu.
Hizbul Mujahideen camp lies 12-18 km from the IB in Sialkot district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. This facility is used as a launchpad for Hizb terrorists to enter the Jammu region, as well as a training centre for operations and weapons handling.
Militants caught infiltrating through Punjab (Gurdaspur and Pathankot) and Jammu sectors have mentioned Mehmona Joya Camp as one of the initial induction centres, sources said. This camp emerged in the early 2000s when LeT and affiliated groups were expanding their network of tiered training camps.
🔴 Base of Lashkar units active in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The Army said on Wednesday that this camp, located 30 km from the LoC in PoK, is a base of LeT units active in Rajouri and Poonch districts. Terrorists involved in the April 20, 2023 attack in Poonch, and the June 9, 2024 attack on a bus carrying pilgrims were trained here, the Army said.
Security establishment sources say the camp came up in the 1990s to provide training to terrorists. The Gulpur camp’s significance lies in its location near the border, which allows infiltration into the Poonch and Rajouri regions, as well as the area’s terrain, which sources said made the Kotli district conducive for training in guerrilla warfare.
Following the Indian surgical strikes in 2016 and the heightened focus on cross-border terrorism, there were reports that Gulpur and some other camps reduced overt activity. But operations likely continued in a covert manner.
🔴 Headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed, base of Masood Azhar.
Markaz Subhanallah in Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province is the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). According to the Army, it is 100 km away from the IB, and serves as a centre for recruitment, training, and indoctrination.
Masood Azhar established the JeM in 1999, soon after his release from an Indian prison following the IC 814 hijacking. From the very beginning, the JeM maintained a base at Bahawalpur, Azhar’s hometown. By 2009, this had grown into a 15-acre walled complex that reportedly had amenities such as a swimming pool and stables, and was allegedly used for terrorist training.
This complex is situated only 8 kilometres from the headquarters of the Pakistan Army’s 31 Corps. Sources said the JeM facility has been associated with the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack, and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing, which resulted in the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
