Vijay Gokhale, India's Foreign Secretary, has confirmed the IAF strikes on Balakot in Pakistan. He revealed that the terror facility which was attacked was led by Maulana Yusuf Azhar alias Ustad Ghauri, who is a brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar.

"India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all measures to fight the menace of terrorism. This non-military pre-emptive action was targeted specifically at JeM camp. The selection of the target was also conditioned by our desire to avoid civilian casualty. It's located in a deep forest on a hilltop," he said.

He added that India has information that JeM was planning terror attacks in India. "A pre-emptive strike became important. India struck the biggest camp of JeM in Balakot," he informed the media. He didn't give any figure of the number of terrorists, senior commanders, trainers and jihadis killed in the strike.