PM says one surgical strike not enough for Pak
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it would be “a big mistake” to think that Pakistan would “start behaving” after just one “surgical strike” operation. He underlined that it would take a long time to make Pakistan fall in line.
He talked about the surgical strikes conducted the Army’s Para-Special Forces against four terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in the intervening night of September 28 and 29,2016. Modi said that he was taking “a big risk” with the cross-border operation.
He said, “But I never care about any political risks to me. My biggest consideration was the safety of our soldiers (the Para-SF commandos) in the morning (of September 29). I had given clear orders that you should all come back (to the Indian side across the LoC) before sunrise, irrespective of the success or failure of the mission.”
He added, “In the morning, the information flow stopped for an hour. My anxiety increased. That time was extremely difficult for me…Then came the information that they have not reached back yet but two-three units have reached the safe zone, so don’t worry But I said I won’t be fine until the last man returns.”
The surgical strike was tactically successful in killing several terrorists along with some Pakistan Army soldiers co-located with them. But there has also been criticism that they have achieved little strategically since Pakistan did nothing to stop its active support to cross-border infiltration and terrorism.
Many military experts have also expressed unease at the politicisation of the surgical strikes. They stressed that such covert military operations should not be unnecessarily publicised to score points in domestic political battles.
The PM said that it was natural for Pakistan to deny that any surgical strike had ever taken place. This is to keep the morale of its armed forces intact.
