India in safe hands: Modi

Hours after India carried out air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the country is in safe hands.

He said nothing was above the nation. "Today is a day to pay homage to India's brave-hearts. I want to assure you that the country is in safe hands," he said at a public rally in Churu in Rajasthan state.

"I vow that I will not let the country bow down," he said in Hindi.

This was the Indian PM's first public comments on the air strikes, reports our New Delhi correspondent.  

Indian jets conducted air strikes against a militant camp in Pakistani territory today, India's foreign secretary said, and an Indian government source claimed 300 militants had been killed, but Pakistan denied there had been any casualties, Reuters adds.

A senior Indian government source said that 300 militants had been killed in the strikes but no details were provided.

The airstrikes hit a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group that claimed credit for a suicide car bomb attack killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir on February 14, ratcheting up tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Quoting Vijay Gokhale, India's top diplomat, the Reuters added that "a very large number" of militants were killed in a strike on a training base in Balakot, a town in a remote valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but did not provide a precise figure for the casualties.

Pakistan downplayed the severity of airstrike, saying its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft, which had released their "payload" in a forested area, causing no casualties and no serious material damage.

"Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzaffarabad sector," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter early on Tuesday, referring to an area in the Pakistan-held part of Kashmir.

Ghafoor said "facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force", the Indian aircraft "released payload in haste, while escaping, which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage".