New Delhi: Ace Indian special force commandos have carried out surgical strikes crossing the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, inflicting significant damage to the terrorist infrastructure across the border.
The operation took place on Wednesday past midnight and is now over, Director General of Military Operations Lt General Ranbir Singh told mediapersons in New Delhi. He said he had also informed his Pakistani counterpart of the surgical strikes.
Pakistan has "strongly condemned the unprovoked and naked aggression of Indian forces along the Line of Control", even as its Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) denied there were any surgical strikes.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement his country could thwart any evil design to undermine its sovereignty. Sharif paid rich tributes to jawans "who have been martyred during unprovoked firing by Indian forces."
But ISPR, the Pakistan Army mouthpiece, toed a line of denial.
"There have been no surgical strike by India, instead there had been cross-border fire initiated and conducted by India which is existential phenomenon. The notion of surgical strikes linked to alleged terrorist bases is an illusion being deliberately generated by India to create false effects. This quest by Indian establishment to create media hype by re-branding cross-border fire as surgical strike is a fabrication of truth. Pakistan has made it clear that if there is a surgical strike on Pakistani soil, same will be strongly responded," the ISPR release said.
In his press conference, Lt General Singh said the raid was conducted after India received credible intelligence of a massive infiltration bid from across the LoC to target Kashmir Valley as well as other Indian cities. Indian forces destroyed the terror launchpads and inflicted heavy casualties, he said.
Multiple platoons of Indian Army Special forces fanned out in an arc stretching almost 250 km across Kupwara, Baramulla and Poonch to hit terror launch pads in surgical strikes that took place early Thursday.
The operation that began at the early hours of the day were being monitored minute-to-minute by military and civilian leadership at War Rooms set up in New Delhi and Udhampur, the headquarters of Army’s Northern Command. Top security sources told CNN-News18 that whole operation was videographed by unmanned aerial vehicles and helmet cameras used by special forces.
At many places ground forces positioned near the Line of Control (LoC) opened artillery fire to divert the attention of Pakistani positions as SF squads and Ghatak platoons crossed over and hit camps that ranged from 500 metres to 3 km inside PoK.
The platoons, air dropped by Dhruv helicopters inside LoC, crossed over by foot into their targets that were well scooped out after almost a week of human and satellite surveillance.
The sources said five launch pads used for infiltrating fidayeen squads into India were razed by precision laser bombs and that Pakistani casualties were in double digits. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and nine injured while a bulk of those dead apart from the terrorists were their handlers and guides.
Two Indian SF soldiers suffered injuries while negotiating mines near the target terror camps. The troops crossed over at 12.30 at night, the ops started at 3 AM, and everything was over by 4.30 AM. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was informed at 9.30 AM. Meeting of CCS
The DGMO was flanked by MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup in a rare press conference that took place after a surprise meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, which was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
A crucial meeting to review the Most Favoured Nation Status granted by India to Pakistan in 1996 was postponed to next week.
Neither Singh nor Swarup took any questions from the media.
CNN-News18 has learned that President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former PM Manmohan Singh, J&K Governor NN Vohra and J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti had been briefed on the surgical strikes by the Indian Army.
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