INDIA RAIDS PoK AFTER 45 YEARS
ARMY AIR DROPS COMMANDOS ACROSS LOC TO KILL TERRORISTS 38 TERRORISTS, 2 PAK SOLDIERS KILLED; PAK DENIES ATTACKS
About 150 Indian commandos, split into five groups of 30 each, crossed the Line of Control on foot late on Wednesday night to target and destroy terror launchpads set up in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The attack on PoK comes after 45 years. The last time the Indian forces crossed into PoK was in 1971 to repulse the Pakistani attack during the Bangladesh war.
Sources said that at least 38 militants were killed and nearly seven to eight terror launchpads destroyed in the “surgical strikes”.
Sources said the entire operation was video recorded using UAVs. 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 exercise to give a befitting reply to the Uri attack had been in the making for a week but the Modi government allegedly decided to wait till external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s address at the UN, while simultaneously mounting pressure on Pakistan on diplomatic fronts.
Pakistan has rubbished India’s claims, saying two of its soldiers had been killed in cross-border fire. But by evening, Pakistani newspaper Dawn was claiming that 14 soldiers from the Indian Army had been killed in firing in two sectors, and that an Indian soldier, Chandu Babulal Chohan, had been taken into custody by Pakistani forces.
Ever since the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by PM, to discuss the option of surgical strikes by the Indian armed forces post the Uri attack on September 18, Indian intelligence agencies had the “advance launch pads’’ at Lipa, Kel, Tatapani (Hotspring) and Bhimber on their radar as they operated within a radius of 500 meter to 3 km from the LoC and were, thus, within striking range of security forces.
With the PM giving the green signal, Mr Doval swung into action and set up a command control room in the South Block along with Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag and DGMO Ranbir Singh.
The PM, home and defence ministers were in constant touch on a hotline with the control room.
The three top officers along with some key Intelligence officials parked themselves there a little before midnight on Wednesday even as the local police was asked to clamp a complete lockdown in the area.
Responding to the report of an Indian soldier in Pakistan’s custody, sources said that one soldier from 37 RR with weapons has inadvertently crossed over to the other side of LoC.