Surgical strikes by Indian army: 35-40 terrorists killed in PoK; 7 terror camps destroyed
Late last night the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes and destroyed seven launch pads around 2-3 kilometre away from Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh the Director General of Military Operations said on Thursday in a press briefing. Today’s surgical strike was carried out on specific intelligence input of terror groups who were ready to infiltrate into India and carry out terror strikes. According to reports, the four-hour long operation was carried out by around 24 para-commandos in which 35-40 terrorists died. The seven terror launch pads were also used by the Uri attackers who attacked the army base camp and killed 19 Indian Army men.
DGMO Lt General Ranbir Singh said, “Significant casualties have been caused by these strikes, the operation has now ended”. According to Time Now report, 35-40 terrorists and two members of Pakistan Army were killed, while more than nine Army men were injured in the strike. Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif addressed the media on Thursday afternoon and said, “The surgical strike carried out by Indians claimed lives of two of our soldiers while nine were injured. We do not have any details about India casualties yet”. Asif said, shots were fired from both the side and he claimed that some Indian soldiers were are also injured during the operation.
The DGMO said, “the strikes targeted the terrorists and their supporters”. He further added, “Despite our persistent appeals to Pakistan to not allow territory under its control to be used for terrorist activities, nothing was done”. According to reports, the operation began at 1:30 am midnight on Wednesday and ended at around 4.30 am on Thursday morning. Soon after which the para-commandos came back to India. The terror launchpad which is mostly used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were in the range of 2 to 30 km from Line of Control (LoC) which was under surveillance since last one week.
Today’s high-level operation was a combination of heliborne and ground forces. Special para-commandos (elite) unit were para-dropped at the spot for operation and it is quite noteworthy after killing terrorists there were no casualties on Indian side during the strike. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations issued a statement saying that the strikes were carried out in Bhimber, Hotspring, Kel and Lipa sectors of Pakistan’s side of the LoC. Following the surgical strikes the Punjab government has ordered to evacuate villages in a 10-km belt along with the border with Pakistan. The Union Home Ministry has directed the Punjab government to evacuate the border as there are chances that Pakistan may hit back in India. The villages in Punjab vacated today include Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Abohar, and Fazilka.
After the information about surgical strikes was made public, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called an all-party meeting in which Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Orrisam Punjab, and Bihar were present along with the leader of the opposition. Singh also spoke to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and informed them about the military action on terror launch pads.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Former PM Manmohan Singh, J&K Governor and J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti were also briefed about the situation. On Thursday morning Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to review the situation along the LoC.
Surgical strikes by Indian army: 35-40 terrorists killed in PoK; 7 terror camps destroyed - India.com