Pakistan giving state funerals to terrorists: India debunks claims of civilians killed during Operation Sindoor

New Delhi, May 8 Highlighting Pakistan's reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism once again, India on Thursday questioned Islamabad's claims about civilians being killed during the May 7 Operation Sindoor strikes even as the video footage of eliminated terrorists being accorded a state funeral has gone viral on social media.

"The claim that only civilians were killed in the strikes on the 7th of May. We have made the point very clearly that all attacks on the morning of 7th May were against carefully selected terrorist infrastructure, terrorist targets," Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said during a media briefing in New Delhi on Operation Sindoor.

"It is not clear to us, in fact, seeing some of the coverage of the aftereffects of these strikes, including the funerals for the terrorists that were held yesterday. I think a lot of you have seen the reports and the coverage in the media. If only civilians, or if any civilians were killed in these attacks, I wonder what message this picture actually sends to all of you. This is a question that is worth asking," he said while holding a photograph that showed UN-proscribed Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba's top Commander Hafiz Abdur Rauf leading the funeral prayers of LeT terrorists killed in Indian airstrikes in Muridke on Wednesday.

"It's also odd that the funerals of civilians are carried out with coffins being draped in Pakistani flags and state honours being accorded. As far as we are concerned, the individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan, doesn't seem to make much sense to us," Misri added.

Misri highlighted that Pakistan's reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism is rooted in a number of instances.

"I don't need to remind where Osama Bin Laden was found and who called him a martyr. Pakistan is also home to a large number of UN proscribed terrorists and also to terrorists proscribed by many countries. You must have seen in the last few days, their Defence Minister and former foreign minister accepted their country's involvement with such terror groups," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Armed Forces targetted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan.

"Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised," the Ministry of Defence stated.

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