How was Indian Army's surgical strike carried out in PoK? Here is what happened in those 4-1/2 hours

Seven terror launch pads were targeted across the LoC by special forces of the Indian Army during the 'surgical strike' overnight in which heliborne and ground forces were used, reports said on Thursday.

According to the reports in media, the operation began at around mid-night last night and ended at around 4:30 AM this morning. The terror launch pads targeted were in the range of 2 to 3km from the Line of Control (LoC).

Here's are the insights into how did the 4-and-half hours long special operation of the Indian Army unfold-

# The Indian army commenced its special operation at midnight on Sept 28. 

# 12.30 am is reported to be the exact time of commencing the operation. 

# Special Forces of the Indian army; namely the Paratroopers were used for the special operation.

# The strikes were a perfect blend of on ground and airborne operations 

# Indian army used choppers to airdrop the para commandos at the LoC, from where they crossed over to the Pakistani side. 

# Indian commandos entered three kilometres inside the Line of Control on the Pakistani side.

# Bhimber, Hotspring, Kel & Lipa sectors, on Pak's side of LoC, were identified as the targets to carry out clinical strikes. 

# The selected camps were located 500 meters to 2 Km across LoC

# There were reports that each of the terror camps had around 8 to 10 terrorist.

# The surgical strikes destroyed 7 terror launch pads. 38 terrorists and 2 Pakistani soldiers have been reported killed in the strikes.

# The Indian army commandos carried out their operation to clinical perfection and ended the operations at 4:30 am.  

In one of its kind of meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Defence ministry called for a joint meeting which was attended by the DGMO and top brass of the Indian army on Thursday.

Live Updates: 38 terrorists, 2 Pak soldiers killed in Indian Army's surgical strikes in PoK, attack video captured by drone camera

The Indian Director General of Military Operations, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh announced that Pakistan had been informed about the strikes and that India has no intention of continuing the operations but is ready for any reaction from the Pak side. 

Pakistan rejected India's claim of surgical strikes across LoC and called it a mere cease fire violation by the Indian armed forces.

What does a Surgical Strike mean

A surgical strike is a military attack which results in or is claimed to have resulted in only damage to the intended legitimate military target, and no or minimal collateral damage to surrounding structures, vehicles, buildings, or the general public infrastructure and utilities.

Precision bombing is an apt example of a surgical strike carried out by fighter aircraft's. Its aim is different from carpet bombing as the latter results in high collateral damage and a wide range of destruction over an affected area which may or may not include high civilian casualties.

ALSO READ: Here's what Indian Army said in press conference

(All details listed out below as per media reports)