India's military acted to protect country

India's military has taken steps necessary to defend the country, a government minister said after Indian combat planes carried out raids on alleged militant camps in Pakistan.

Prakash Javadekar, human resource development minister, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a free hand to the military to respond to an attack on an Indian security convoy in disputed Kashmir on February 14 that has raised tensions.

Pakistan downplayed today's incident, saying there were no casualties and that Indian jets "released a payload" hastily in a forest area after crossing Kashmir's Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between the two countries.

"This was a necessary step for the defence of the country, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given the armed forces a free hand. The whole country stands behind the armed forces," said Javadekar.