New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the Indian air strike on a terrorist camp in Pakistan's Balakot would have been ranked "among one of the major military operations of the world", had it not been for "politics".

In an interview to India TV's Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma in front of nearly 2,500 people at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Modi was asked what had prompted the early release of captured Indian Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. The PM replied cryptically: "That was a (terrible) night. There are many mysteries buried in (the darkness of) that night. Let those mysteries stay where they are," he added.