URI, May 20 -- Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Wednesday said that while "Operation Sindoor" was avoidable, it inadvertently served as a brutal reminder of conflict's reality - something residents of Srinagar and Jammu had, until recently, only watched from a distance.

"Operation Sindoor should not have happened. But one thing that did happen was that it proved very good for the people of the border," the Deputy CM as per news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) told a large public gathering in Uri, a town that has long lived in the shadow of India-Pakistan hostilities.

According to Deputy CM, recent drone intrusions were the trigger that brought the point home. "Why did it happen?Because this time the drone ...