'Operation Sindoor' was the codename for India's precision 25-minute military strike on terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that began at 1.25 am Wednesday.
The strike was a response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Twenty-six people, mostly civilians, including a Nepali national, had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last month by four terrorists from a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pak-based terrorist group that has launched multiple horrific terror attacks on India in the past.
India has repeatedly called out Pak for its support of cross-border terrorism, including attacks like in Pulwama in 2019, Uri in 2016, and the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.
After the Pahalgam terror attack Delhi said it had evidence the Pakistan deep state was involved.
'Operation Sindoor', the government said in a briefing Wednesday afternoon, was a "measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible" answer to Pak's continuing support of terrorism.
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The strike killed 70 terrorists and injured over 60 across the nine target locations, which included camps that trained David Headley and Ajmal Kasab, the terrorists who planned and executed the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and those that launched attacks against civilians in J&K.
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The codename 'Sindoor' was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a reference to the mark Hindu women put on their forehead after marriage, sources had told news agency PTI.
In the Pahalgam attack families were rounded up and the men shot in front of their wives or partners, and therefore the PM felt it was fitting name for an operation to avenge them.
26 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Other anti-terror operations by the Indian military were given more war-like names, such as 'Vijay' during the Kargil War in 1999 and 'Trident' and 'Python' during the 1971 war.
Here is a breakdown of some of these operations.
'Bandar' was the name given to the air strikes in Pakistan's Balakot in February 2019.
These strikes followed a Jaish suicide bomber in a Maruti Suzuki Eeco van blowing up a security forces convoy in J&K's Pulwama on February 26. Forty soldiers from the CRPF, or Central Reserve Police Force, were killed in an attack weeks before a Lok Sabha election.
40 CRPF soldiers died in the terror attack on a convoy in Pulwama.
Thirteen days later, a dozen Air Force Mirage fighter jets, streaked around 20km past the LoC, into Pakistan's territory, to target Jaish training camps in Balakot.
These were the first cross-border air strikes by India since the 1971 war.
The Pulwama attack came three years after Jaish terrorists attacked an Army base near the town of Uri in Baramulla district. Nineteen soldiers were killed in the attack and 30 were injured.
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British broadcaster the BBC called it 'the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades'. This was when terrorist activity was extremely high in the Valley.
12 IAF MIrage 2000s bombed a Jaish terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot in February 2019.
The military response to the Uri attack was unnamed, but it was a striking display of India's military might. The Indian Army crossed the LoC to destroy Jaish terror camps and launchpads.
The 'Uri surgical strikes', as they were dubbed, underlined also India's tactical nous. Carried out over the intervening night of September 28 and 29, it saw commandos of the Army's elite 4 and 9 Para Special Forces engaging multiple targets on either side of the Pir Panjal range.
READ | New Video Of 2016 Surgical Strikes Shows Assault On Terror Launchpads
It was also special because the operation went off perfectly; there were no Indian casualties and only one soldier was injured, whereas Pak Army personnel and terrorists were eliminated.
The Kargil War saw two special operations - 'Vijay' and 'Safed Sagar'.
The first was an op to reclaim areas occupied by Pak during the early part of the conflict.
The second was an Air Force raid to flush out Pak troops from positions previously held by the Indian Army, and marked the first time since 1971 there was large-scale of aerial power.
Both operations were successful and India regained ground lost to Pak.
Between the Kargil War and the 1971 war, there was conflict for control of the Siachen Glacier in Ladakh in 1984. India's operation, codenamed 'Meghdoot', was in response to Pak's 'Op Ababeel' and its attempts to claim legitimacy of the glacier by allowing mountain expeditions.
It too was a success. The op was launched on April 13, 1984, and involved Indian troops being airlifted to capture strategic positions, including Bilafond La and Sia La.
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Significantly, 'Meghdoot' can be considered an 'active' operation, since India continues to maintain military presence on the glacier.
In the 1971 war there were three military operations of significance - 'Cactus Lily', 'Trident', and 'Python', which took place in December of that year.
The first was an aerial operation that involved crossing the Meghna River, skirt a Pak stronghold, and reach Dhaka. This was critical since it allowed Indian troops to encircle the Bangladesh capital and pressure Pak into surrendering. Had it failed, the war would have likely dragged on.
'Trident' and 'Python' were naval operations, and so stand out on this list.
The first was the first time India used anti-ship missiles in combat scenarios in the region. The operation was a big success; Pak lost at least three vessels, including a destroyer, and ammunition and fuel storage facilities along the coast in Karachi were also eliminated.
This was key because the Karachi Port then was the Pak Navy's HQ. It was also a key trading port, which is why it was heavily defended and why India's operation was hailed as important.
'Trident' also saw the use of Air Force jets to supplement the Navy.
'Op Python' was carried out a few days later to reinforce Indian superiority.
And finally there were 'Riddle' and 'Ablaze' during the 1965 war.
'Riddle' was a response to Pakistan crossing the Line of Control, or LoC, and entering J&K, and involved the Indian military targeting Lahore and Kasur in Pak in September that year.
'Ablaze' was a defensive movement a few months earlier. It was part of the Army's mobilisation tactics, particularly in Gujarat and the Rann of Kutch area. There was no actual conflict, but the swift movement of troops and equipment set the stage before war broke out.
