Operation Sindoor declassified: PM Modi rejected ‘Tulip Garden’ name

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered strikes on terror hubs in Pakistan regardless of whether the perpetrators were 'on earth, sky or in hell'. In a Discovery docuseries 'Declassified: Operation Sindoor', Doval said Modi wanted to send a message that the fight against terror will end only when 'the last terrorist is eliminated'. The Hindustan Times reports that Doval recalled the PM cutting short a Saudi trip after the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 tourists.

Newly declassified accounts, reported by the Free Press Journal, detail the extraordinary secrecy around the May 7 strikes. The launch date was conveyed on a paper chit, and Air Chief Marshal A P Singh faked a trip to Baroda to mislead observers. The Army had proposed the name 'Operation Tulip Garden', but Modi rejected it, saying the name 'Sindoor' represented the women whose husbands were killed in the attack. India struck nine of 34 shortlisted targets, five in PoJK and four in Pakistan, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed hubs.

Doval stressed that India's tolerance should not be mistaken for weakness and that the operation is 'alive' until every terrorist is eliminated. The docuseries, which also reveals how India war-gamed Pakistani retaliation, is set to air on Discovery.