Multiple surgical strikes across LoC will send Pakistan a loud and clear message Prakash Katoch

Army's surgical strikes at LoC: How it happened Based on specific intelligence input of terror groups ready to infiltrate into India and carry out terror attacks, Army conducted surgical strikes on terror launch pads at the LoC on Wednesday night. 1. Special Forces operation on terror launch pads lasted from 12.30 am to 4.30 and the location was 500 meters-2 Km across, sources said 2. According to sources, Indian commandos entered three kilometres across the Line of Control to conduct the 'surgical strikes' 3. The strikes were carried out in Bhimber, Hotspring, Kel & Lipa sectors, on Pak's side of LoC, according to Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations 4. 7 terror launch pads were destroyed during the surgical strike, Indian Army special Forces were paradropped 5. Heavy damages were caused to the terror camps and there were significant casualties 6. Government has called an all-party meeting at 4 pm today after Indian Army conducts surgical strikes in Pak territory 7. The operation has ceased and there is no plan for further strikes, says Army Multiple surgical strikes across LoC will send Pakistan a loud and clear message Prakash Katoch Sep 29, 2016 16:13 IST Multiple strikes by Indian Special Forces on Pakistan’s terrorist launch pads-cum-terrorist camps on night of 28 September should have deflated some of the putrid gas because of which Pakistani leaders and their army have been strutting around making wild statements. The world knows that the Pakistani Army has not won a single war, has lost half its country during the birth of Bangladesh and surrendered 93,000 prisoners of war to India. Pakistan sheltered Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US Special Forces at Abbotabad; besides, Mullah Mansour Akhtar too was killed inside Pakistan, in the Balochistan province. Despite this and without adequate pressure from US and China, Pakistan has been conducting a proxy war against India and Afghanistan with impunity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone out of his way with an extended hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, but the latter was hell-bent on stabbing India in the back — just like all previous Pakistani presidents and prime ministers, with their own military as the Sword of Damocles over their heads. The manner in which the surgical strikes were conducted at seven widely-dispersed locations astride the LoC so successfully by elements of two Special Forces units of the Northern Command speaks highly of professionalism. The success of these actions also should be seen in the backdrop of the fact that the Pakistani Army was on high alert for the past 10 days, not to mention the night flights by F-16s over Islamabad, and Nawaz and his defence minister Khawaja Asif along with Minister for Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and COAS Raheel Sharif talking of war and twitching their nuclear tails. The fact that the Pakistani Army was taken by surprise, tried to intervene with Indian Special Forces strikes and lost four regular Pakistani soldiers (two, as admitted by Nawaz) adds to the success. The clinical strikes inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists, their supporters and the Pakistani Army without any loss to India's troops. The capture and interrogation of the Pakistani-origin guides who helped the Pakistani terrorists during the Uri attack had once again confirmed the Pakistani Army’s involvement — which was not only denied by Nawaz, but countered in the most absurd terms by saying that the Uri attack was engineered from within India. After the Uri terror attack, there was tremendous pressure on the government to retaliate. In between there were also fake reports of our Special Forces having gone across the LoC, struck terrorist locations, killed 20 and injured some 200. This was perhaps a deliberate ruse to lull the enemy and it obviously worked. The Pakistani military was clearly confident that India would not resort to any physical action of this type. The intended targets, however, were being kept under constant surveillance following the attack on the army camp at Uri, to be struck at the right time. These strikes would have come as a terrific jolt to Pakistan. In fact, the surprise was so complete that the Pakistani posts opened fire only after our troops were safely back home. These strikes, under the leadership of Modi, have demonstrated to the world — Pakistan in particular — that India cannot be viewed as a ‘soft’ State. Pakistan was apparently expecting a conventional response, which it feared most; hence, the periodic nuclear sabre-rattling. The list of some 35-40 terrorist training camps in PoK along with their locations has been available with the Indian Parliament. The Pakistani hierarchy appears to be milling around in surprise. Pakistan’s ISI is trying to showcase that nothing much has happened, but the shock effect is palpable. Our strikes in PoK are definitely not any aggression because PoK territory is an integral part of India; terrorists were struck, not the Pakistani military, and our troops returned having completed the assigned task successfully. Will Pakistan curb its terrorist activities now? There is no question absolutely because the Pakistani military not only holds Pakistan and the Pakistani public to ransom, it has infiltrated ever department and organ in Pakistan: Economic, administrative and so on. More significantly, Pakistani scholar Ayesha Siddiqa in her book Military Inc had propounded in 2007 that the Pakistani military’s private-industrial-corporate complex was to the tune of $20 billion already. This figure must have multiplied several times over, and to retain this power and money, the Pakistani military must have conflict both with India and Afghanistan. So, it is not going to give up Pakistan using terrorism as a state policy. For all the peaceniks who feared any physical retaliation to the Uri attack (war, including nuclear war), I hope it is clear once for all that there is plenty of space below conventional war. In fact, the response to asymmetric war must always be asymmetric. We should have realised this after Operation Parakram following the Parliament attack. We should have struck Pakistan sub-conventionally both after the 26 November, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Parliament attack. Not that we should have not have done so after the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot this January, as well as earlier ones. The manner in which the surgical strikes were conducted at seven widely-dispersed locations astride the LoC so successfully by elements of two Special Forces units of the Northern Command speaks highly of professionalism At the same time, we must acknowledge that these cross-LoC strikes by our Special Forces were around three kilometres across, rightly exploiting the porosity of the border — a factor that has been used mainly by Pakistan till now, to India's disadvantage. With these trans-border strikes, Pakistanis will be more alert. However, the option of such future strikes will remain possible. At the same time, while Special Forces are central to an asymmetric response, a direct form of trans-border actions of this type is just ‘one’ task with which they should be tasked. Special Forces provide the government with multiple low-cost options without or with ambiguous options. They should be employed on politico-military missions at the strategic level. The government will do well to establish the Special Operations Command, directly under Modi for such tasks, leaving actions like these multiple trans-border strikes to the Military Special Forces. Interestingly, the Pakistani media has criticised escalation along the LoC but has “rejected” India’s claim of having conducted the cross-border surgical strikes. However, escalation by Pakistan is very much on the cards, given the Pakistani military psyche discussed above. We should be geared for terrorism across India and an escalation in the forms of terrorist attacks — even chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks or lone wolf attacks. In addition, cross-border attacks from Pakistan could increase. Should there be more escalation, Pakistan can be expected to ‘deploy’ its nuclear weapons and publicise it. Besides calling its nuclear buff, Islamabad has to be told that New Delhi’s 'No First Use' doctrine applies to the ‘threat’ of nuclear attack as well. Additionally, our Special Forces have already been conducting joint training. Should Pakistan continue with its proxy war on India and Afghanistan, there should be ample opportunities for joint operations by these two forces against Pakistan. Modi has once again demonstrated that his leadership is class apart. Kudos to him and congratulations to our Special Forces and IAF helicopter pilots for the above highly successful surgical strikes in PoK. पाकव्याप्त काश्मीीरमध्ये अशी झाली कारवाई नवी दिल्ली- भारतीय लष्कराने पाकव्याप्त काश्मी्रमध्ये घुसून 35 दहशतवादी व 9 सैनिकांना ठार मारल्याची घोषणा भारताने केल्यानंतर या कारवाईवर अचानक प्रकाशझोत पडला आणि पाकिस्तानने थयथयाट सुरू केला. पार्श्वसभूमी उरीतील दहशतवादी हल्ल्यात आपले 18 जवान हुतात्मा झाल्यानंतर भारताने राजनैतिक पातळीवर पाकिस्तानची कोंडी करायला सुरवात केली होती. संयुक्त राष्ट्रांच्या आमसभेत पाकिस्तानचे पंतप्रधान नवाझ शरीफ यांनी काश्मीलरचे तुणतुणे वाजवले होते. एनाम गंभीर या भारतीय अधिकाऱ्याने शरीफ यांना सडेतोड प्रत्युत्तर दिले होते. त्यानंतर परराष्ट्र मंत्री सुषमा स्वराज यांनीही आमसभेत हिंदीत भाषण करत पाकिस्तानच्या दाव्यांच्या चिंधड्या उडविल्या होत्या. त्याच्या आदल्याच दिवशी पंतप्रधान नरेंद्र मोदी यांनीही जाहीर सभेत पाकिस्तानच्या जनतेशीच संवाद साधत तेथील राज्यकर्ते आणि लष्कराच्या कारवायांवर बोट ठेवले होते. कारवाई काय झाली? पाकव्याप्त काश्मीवरमधील प्रशिक्षण तळांवर दहशतवादी एकत्र जमल्याची माहिती मिळाली. हे दहशतवादी भारतात घुसण्याच्या तयारीत होते. उरीतील दहशतवादी हल्ल्यानंतर किमान 20 वेळा दहशतवाद्यांनी भारतात घुसखोरी करण्याचे प्रयत्न केले होते. हे सर्व प्रयत्न भारतीय लष्कराने उधळले होते. आता पाकव्याप्त काश्मीणरमध्ये दहशतवादी असल्याची माहिती मिळाल्यानंतर काल (बुधवार) मध्यरात्री 12.30 ते पहाटे 4.30 या कालावधीमध्ये भारतीय लष्कराचे काही जवान पाकव्याप्त काश्मीारमध्ये हेलिकॉप्टरमधून दाखल झाले. प्रत्यक्ष ताबारेषेपासून 500 मीटर ते दोन किलोमीटर एवढ्या अंतरामध्ये ही कारवाई झाली. प्रत्यक्ष कारवाई ही जमिनीवर झाली. या कारवाईमध्ये पाकव्याप्त काश्मीमरमधील किमान पाच दहशतवादी तळ उध्वस्त करण्यात आले. या कारवाईमध्ये भारताचा कोणताही जवान जखमी झालेला नाही; तर ‘आमचे दोन सैनिक ठार आणि नऊ सैनिक जखमी झाले,‘ असा दावा पाकिस्तानने केला आहे. पाकिस्तानची प्रतिक्रिया अपेक्षेनुसार, पाकिस्तानने सुरवातीला संतप्त प्रतिक्रिया व्यक्त केली आणि नंतर या ‘सर्जिकल स्ट्राईक‘ला ‘भारताने केलेले आक्रमण‘ असे स्वरूप देण्याचा प्रयत्न केला. भारताने कारवाईची अधिकृत घोषणा केल्यामुळे अडचणीत आलेल्या पाकिस्तानने आता भारतालाच ‘आक्रमक‘ ठरविण्याचा प्रयत्न केला आहे. ‘भारताने पुन्हा अशी कारवाई केल्यास पाकिस्तान पूर्ण क्षमतेने प्रत्युत्तर देईल,‘ असा इशाराही पाकिस्तानने दिला आहे. पुढे काय? पंतप्रधान नरेंद्र मोदी आणि परराष्ट्र मंत्री सुषमा स्वराज यांनी आंतरराष्ट्रीय पातळीवर पाकिस्तानला एकटे पाडण्याच्या योजना कार्यान्वित केल्या असल्याचे चित्र गेल्या काही दिवसांमध्ये पाहण्यास मिळत आहे. तसेच, पंतप्रधान नरेंद्र मोदी यांनी आज (गुरुवार) दुपारी चार वाजता सर्वपक्षीय बैठकही बोलाविली आहे. गेल्या काही दिवसांमध्ये सिंधू पाणी वाटप कराराचाही पुनर्विचार करण्याची प्रक्रिया सुरू झाली आहे. त्यामुळे आजच्या सर्वपक्षीय बैठकीनंतर याविषयीही काही निर्णय होण्याची शक्यरता आहे. भारतीय लष्कराच्या कारवाईची माहिती राष्ट्रपती प्रणव मुखर्जी, उपराष्ट्रपती हमीद अन्सारी, माजी पंतप्रधान डॉ. मनमोहनसिंग, जम्मू-काश्मीवरचे राज्यपाल एन. एन. व्होरा आणि मुख्यमंत्री मेहबुबा मुफ्ती यांनाही देण्यात आली आहे.