The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM ) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday hailed the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike on a Jaish terror camp in Balakot Pakistan, saying India has the right to self-defence.

“We welcome this. It’s a right step. We stand by the government,” the Hyderabad lawmaker said, reports PTI from Hyderabad.

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“If a country is not able to stop non-state actors, then another country which is the target of terrorist violence has the right to act in self-defence,” he said, according to PTI.

Owaisi said India should now go after Pakistani terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. “They are satans and their outfits are also evil.”

Indian forces carried out a strike at the biggest camp of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot early this morning, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on Tuesday, hours after IAF dropped 1,000 pound bombs in a thickly-forested hilltop that has eliminated a large number of terrorists. This camp was headed by Jaish chief Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Maulana Yousuf Azhar.

The strikes was carried out on the basis of credible intelligence and designed to target the Jaish camp without any civilian casualties, Gokhale announced hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a top security meet to review the cross-border strike.

The foreign secretary also launched a global outreach, briefing envoys of the USA, UK, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey and six Asean nations on the Indian air strike across LoC in Balakot.

First Published: Feb 26, 2019 16:49 IST