India strikes across LoC

Around 150 Indian commandos, split into five groups of 30 each, crossed the Line of Control on foot early on Thursday night to target and destroy terror launchpads set up in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Sources said at least 38 terrorists were killed and nearly seven to eight terror launchpads destroyed in the “surgical strikes”.

Sources said the entire operation was video-recorded using UAVs, and still photographs were also taken. These may be released by the Army soon. One commando was injured in a mine blast while returning after the operation.

Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, India’s director-general of military operations, while giving out selective details of the strikes on Thursday morning, said “significant damage” had been caused.

The surgical strikes by the Narendra Modi government, coming 11 days after the September 18 Uri attack, is a paradigm shift in India’s war against terrorism. This is the first time India has upped the ante and sent out a clear, unequivocal message that it’s payback time for continued Pakistan-supported terrorism.

Pakistan on Thursday morning rubbished India’s claim of surgical strikes, saying two of its soldiers had been killed in cross-border firing. But by the evening, Pakistani newspaper Dawn and news channel Geo News were carrying reports quoting security sources that 14 soldiers from the Indian Army had been killed in firing across the LoC in two sectors, and that an Indian soldier, by the name Chandu Babulal Chohan, had been taken into custody by Pakistani forces.

Later Thursday, in Islamabad, Pakistan foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry summoned India’s high commissioner Gautam Bambawale to its foreign office and handed over a protest note over the Indian military action.

Responding to the report of an Indian soldier in Pakistan’s custody, Army sources said one soldier from 37 RR with weapons inadvertently crossed over to the other side of the LoC. Pakistan was informed by the DGMO on the hotline. Such inadvertent crossing by Armymen and civilians are not unusual on either side. They are returned through existing mechanisms. On reports about the killing of eight Indian Army personnel in sections of the Pakistani media, sources called them “completely false and baseless”.

While there is still no official confirmation on the timing of the operations, sources in the Indian security establishment said it could have lasted from 12.30 am to 4 am Thursday and the locations, spread over 250 km of hilly, forested terrain, were 500 metres to 2 km from the LoC on the Pakistani side.

The entire Special Forces unit was back at their base at about 4 am on Thursday, loaded with evidence, including photographs of the operation and military hardware seized from the killed militants.

The exercise to give a befitting reply to the Uri attack had been in the making for a week but the Modi government decided to wait till external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s address at the United Nations General Assembly, while simultaneously mounting pressure on Pakistan on the diplomatic and economic fronts before finally deciding to move in.

It was late Wednesday evening, after national security adviser Ajit Doval informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of specific intelligence inputs that Pakistani security agencies were going to shift militants from some of the launchpads operating close to the LoC, that Mr Modi finally gave his consent for a “limited strike” targeting these areas. Before giving his consent, the PM discussed the issue with both home minister Rajnath Singh and defence minister Manohar Parrikar.