Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) [India], May 7 (ANI): A comprehensive mock drill was conducted on Wednesday in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, as part of a nationwide initiative to assess emergency preparedness and response capabilities.

Speaking to ANI, Ayodhya District Magistrate Nikhil Tikaram Funde stated that mock drills were carried out at four critical locations in the district. These included Ayodhya Airport, the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, and two other important places.

'We are conducting mock drills at four places in the district today- At the airport, inside Ram Janmabhoomi temple and two main neighbourhoods,' he said.

Mock drills are being carried out across major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Gwalior, and Jaipur, to evaluate local response capabilities to security challenges.

This comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday instructed all states and union territories to carry out the drills to evaluate their preparedness against 'new and complex threats.'

The Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of Wednesday, targeting terrorist infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). This operation was a retaliatory response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians, including one Nepali national.

Hours after India conducted a series of strikes on terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh held a media briefing in the national capital to share the details of the operation.

Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who briefed the media alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, stated that 'Operation Sindoor' was launched to deliver justice to the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and their families.

Singh reported that a total of nine terror sites were targeted and successfully destroyed. She emphasised that the locations were chosen to ensure there was no damage to civilians or their infrastructure.

'Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to deliver justice to the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and their families. Nine terrorist camps were targeted and successfully destroyed... The locations were so selected to avoid damage to civilian infrastructures and loss of any civilian lives', Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said.

Col Sofiya Qureshi presented the videos of the destruction of terror camps, including from the Muridke and where David Headley and Ajmal Kasab, perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, received training. Other than Muridke, Sarjal camp in Sialkot, Markaz Ahle Hadith, Barnala and Markaz Abbas, Kotli and Mehmoona Joya camp, Sialkot, were targeted in the strikes conducted by the Indian Army, Col Qureshi informed.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that the attack on Pahalgam was driven by an objective of undermining the return of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.

'The attack in Pahalgam was marked with extreme barbarity, with the victims mostly killed with head shots at close range and in front of their family...the family members were deliberately traumatised through the manner of killing, accompanied by the exhortation that they should take back the message. The attack was clearly driven by the objective of undermining normalcy returning to Kashmir,' he said.

India has carried out its deepest strikes inside Pakistan's undisputed territory since 1971, successfully targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This marks New Delhi's most significant military action within Pakistani territory in over five decades. (ANI)