What is 'Operation Sindoor'?

Operation Sindoor is the codename given by India to the air strikes it conducted against Pakistan on the intervening night of Tuesday into Wednesday.

Delhi said it struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in response to last month's deadly Pahalgam attack on Indian tourists and added that they were "terrorist infrastructure" sites in Pakistan. Islamabad said only six sites were hit and rejected Delhi's allegation that it harbours militants. It also vowed to retaliate, reports BBC.

In India, the choice of the name Operation Sindoor has been widely welcomed by citizens and political parties. It is being seen as a symbolic tribute to the women widowed in the Pahalgam attack in which 26 men were killed.

In Hindu tradition, sindoor, or vermilion powder, is worn by married women in their hair parting or on their foreheads. It is typically removed when a woman becomes a widow, making it a symbol of loss.

A government-released image of the operation's name shows one of the Os in sindoor replaced by a small bowl with some red powder in it.

"It evokes the image, seared into our national consciousness, of the newly-widowed bride, kneeling and weeping by the side of her assassinated husband of six days in Pahalgam - the entire reason why Operation #Sindoor was necessary," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on X.