Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday asserted that Pakistan was trying to rebuild the dismantled terrorist network destroyed by India during Operation Sindoor and urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to rethink its latest bailout package to the country.

Speaking at Bhuj airbase, where he praised the "air warriors" for Operation Sindoor, Singh underscored that a significant portion of the IMF loan would "certainly" be used to fund terror infrastructure.

The Air Force base was one of the military sites targeted by Pakistan during the hostilities between the two nations.

"The Pakistan government has also announced financial assistance to rebuild the terror infrastructure of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) located in Muridke and Bahawalpur. A significant portion of the one billion dollars coming from the IMF will certainly be used to fund this terror infrastructure. Would this not be considered indirect funding by the IMF?" Singh said.

On May 9, at the height of hostilities between India and Pakistan, the IMF cleared a $1-billion tranche for Islamabad as part of its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending program despite objections by India.

The Defence Minister further stressed that any kind of financial assistance to Pakistan was nothing less than terror financing.

"The government there is planning to spend around 140 million rupees - collected from ordinary Pakistani taxpayers - on Masood Azhar, even though he is a UN-designated terrorist," Singh said.

Singh's assertion comes a day after Pakistan minister Rana Tanveer Hussain visited Muridke - one of the nine terror bases hit by India during Operation Sindoor - and said that the government would rebuild the area at its own expense.

Muridke is the hub of the LeT, while Bahawalpur is the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Pahalgam attack, where 26 people were killed, was carried out by Lashkar terrorists.