The Balakot airstrike is a military action, specifically a non-military, preemptive aerial bombing raid conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on February 26, 2019. The operation, codenamed Operation Bandar, was launched in retaliation for the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019, in which a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suicide bomber killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
The strike was historic as it was the first time since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that attacking warplanes had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and the first time since both India and Pakistan became nuclear powers. The mechanism involved a strike package of IAF Mirage 2000 fighter jets, which flew into Pakistan's airspace to target an alleged JeM training camp near the town of Balakot in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, approximately 80 km from the LoC. The jets were armed with precision-guided munitions, including Israeli-supplied SPICE-2000 "smart bombs."
The airstrike connects directly to the subsequent aerial skirmish on February 27, 2019, where Pakistan retaliated, leading to the capture and later repatriation of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. The event is widely seen as establishing a "new normal" in India's counter-terrorism policy, signaling a willingness to conduct cross-border air attacks against terrorist infrastructure in mainland Pakistan, a significant escalation from previous responses like the 2016 surgical strikes. This shift in doctrine was described by the government as a strong message that terror camps across the LoC would no longer be safe havens.